
<3ass_JPSUoS 



fopyiightlf. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



■_ 1 __ 

3361 



American Mtn of letters. 



EDITED BY 



CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER. 



" Thou wert the morning star among the living, 
Ere thy fair light had fled: 
Now, having died, thou art as Hesperus, giving 
New splendor to the dead. ,} 




■ 





COU^y 



& 




Vh^ 



*».•' 



v.* 



aimerican a?en of 3tetter£. 



RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 



BY / 

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 



n/ 







BOSTON: 
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY. 

New York: 11 East Seventeenth Street. 

1885. 



CONTENTS. 



Introduction 



CHAPTER I. 

1803-1823. To jet. 20. 

Birthplace. — Boyhood. — College Life 37 

* CHAPTER II. 

1823-1828. Mt. 20-25. 

Extract from a Letter to a Classmate. — School-Teach- 
ing. — Study of Divinity. — "Approbated " to Preach. 
— Visit to the South. — Preaching in Various Places 48 

CHAPTER III. 

1828-1833. JEt. 25-30. 

Settled as Colleague of Rev. Henry Ware. — Married to 
Ellen Louisa Tucker. — Sermon at the Ordination of 
Rev. H. B. Goodwin. — His Pastoral and Other La- 
bors. — Emerson and Father Taylor. — Death of 
Mrs. Emerson. — Difference of Opinion with some of 
his Parishioners. — Sermon Explaining his Views. — 
Resignation of his Pastorate 55 



IV CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IV. 

1833-1838. JEt. 30-35. 

§ 1. Visit to Europe. — On his Return preaches in Differ- 
ent Places. — Emerson in the Pulpit. — At Newton. 

— Fixes his Residence at Concord. — The Old Manse. 

— Lectures in Boston. — Lectures on Michael An- 
gelo and on Milton published in the " North Ameri- 
can Review." — Beginning of the Correspondence 
with Carlyle. — Letters to the Rev. James Freeman 
Clarke. — Republication of " Sartor Resartus." 

§ 2. Emerson's Second Marriage. — His New Residence 
in Concord. — Historical Address. — Course of Ten 
•Lectures on English Literature delivered in Boston. 

— The Concord Battle Hymn. — Preaching in Con- 
cord and East Lexington. — Accounts of his Preach- 
ing by Several Hearers. — A Course of Lectures on 
the Nature and Ends of History. — Address on War. 

— Death of Edward Bliss Emerson. — Death of 
Charles Chauncy Emerson. 

§ 3. Publication of " Nature." — Outline of this Essay. — 
Its Reception. — Address before the Phi Beta Kappa 
Society 62 

CHAPTER V 

1838-1843. Mi. 35-40. 

§ 1. Divinity School Address. — Correspondence. — Lec- 
tures on Human Life. — Letters to James Freeman 
Clarke. — Dartmouth College Address : Literary Eth- 
ics. — Waterville College Address : The Method of 
Nature. — Other Addresses: Man the Reformer. — 
Lecture on the Times. — The Conservative. — The 
Transcendentalism — Boston " Transcendentalism." 

— " The Dial." — Brook Farm. 

§ 2. First Series of Essays published. — Contents : His- 
tory, Self-Reliance, Compensation, Spiritual Laws, 



CONTENTS. V 

Love, Friendship, Prudence, Heroism, The Over-Soul, 
Circles, Intellect, Art. — Emerson's Account of his 
Mode of Life in a Letter to Carlyle. — Death of 
Emerson's Son. — Threnody 116 

CHAPTER VI. 

1843-1848. JEt. 40-45. 

" The Young American." — Address on the Anniversary 
of the Emancipation of the Negroes in the British 
West Indies. — Publication of the Second Series of 
Essays. — Contents : The Poet. — Experience. — 
Character. — Manners. — Gifts. — Nature. — Politics. 
— Nominalist and Realist. — New England Reform- 
ers. — Publication of Poems. — Second Visit to Eng- 
land 179 

CHAPTER VII. 

1848-1853. JEt. 45-50. 

The " Massachusetts Quarterly Review." — Visit to Eu- 
rope. — England. — Scotland. — France. — " Repre- 
sentative Men " published. I. Lives of Great Men. 
II. Plato ; or, the Philosopher ; Plato ; New Read- 
ings. III. Swedenborg ; or, the Mystic. IV- Mon- 
taigne ; or, the Skeptic. V. Shakespeare ; or, the 
Poet. VI. Napoleon ; or, the Man of the World. 
VII. Goethe ; or, the Writer. — Contribution to the 
" Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli " 193 

CHAPTER VIII. 

1853-1858. Mt. 50-55. 

Lectures in various Places. — Anti-Slavery Addresses. — 
Woman. A Lecture read before the Woman's Rights 
Convention. — Samuel Hoar. Speech at Concord. — 
Publication of "English Traits."— The "Atlantic 
Monthly." — The "Saturday Club" 210 



VI ^ CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IX. 

1858-1863. Ms. 55-60. 

Essay on Persian Poetry. — Speech at the Burns Centen- 
nial Festival. — Letter from Emerson to a Lady. — 
Tributes to Theodore Parker and to Thoreau. — Ad- 
dress on the Emancipation Proclamation. — Publica- 
tion of " The Conduct of Life." Contents : Fate ; 
Power; Wealth; Culture; Behavior; Considerations 
by the Way ; Beauty ; Illusions 224 

CHAPTER X. 
1863-1868. ^Et. 60-65. 

"Boston Hymn." — "Voluntaries." — Other Poems. — 
"May-Day and other Pieces." — "Remarks at the 
Funeral Services of President Lincoln." — Essay on 
Persian Poetry. — Address at a Meeting of the Free 
Religious Association. — "Progress of Culture." Ad- 
dress before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard 
University. — Course of Lectures in Philadelphia. — 
The Degree of LL. D. conferred upon Emerson by 
Harvard University. — " Terminus " 240 

CHAPTER XI. 

1868-1873. Ms. 65-70. 

Lectures on the Natural History of the Intellect. — Publi- 
cation of " Society and Solitude." Contents : Soci- 
ety and Solitude. — Civilization. — Art. — Eloquence. 

— Domestic Life. — Farming. — Works and Days. — 
Books. — Clubs. — Courage. — Success. — Old Age. 

— Other Literary Labors. — Visit to California. — 
Burning of his House, and the Story of its Rebuild- 
ing. — Third Visit to Europe. — His Reception at 
Concord on his Return 249 



CONTENTS. vii 

CHAPTER XII. 

1873-1878. ^Et. 70-75. 

Publication of "Parnassus." — Emerson Nominated as 
Candidate for the Office of Lord Rector of Glasgow 
University. — Publication of " Letters and Social 
Aims." Contents : Poetry and Imagination. — Social 
Aims. — Eloquence. — Resources. — The Comic. — 
Quotation and Originality. — Progress of Culture. — 
Persian Poetry. — Inspiration. — Greatness. — Im- 
mortality. — Address at the Unveiling of the Statue 
of " The Minute-Man " at Concord.— Publication of 
Collected Poems 280 

CHAPTER XIII. 

1878-1882. Mt. 75-79. 

Last Literary Labors. — Addresses and Essays. — " Lec- 
tures and Biographical Sketches." — " Miscellanies " 294 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Emerson's Poems 310 

CHAPTER XV. 

Recollections of Emerson's Last Years. — Mr. Conway's 
Visits. — Extracts from Mr. Whitman's Journal. — 
Dr. Le Baron Russell's Visit. — Dr. Edward Emer- 
son's Account. — Illness and Death. — Funeral Ser- 
vices 343 

CHAPTER XVI. 

EMERSON. — A RETROSPECT. 

Personality and Habits of Life. — His Commission and 
Errand. — As a Lecturer. — His Use of Authorities. 
— Resemblance to Other Writers. — As influenced 



Vlil CONTENTS. 

by Others. — His Place as a Thinker. — Idealism and 
Intuition. — Mysticism. — His Attitude respecting 
Science. — As an American. — His Fondness for Sol- 
itary Study. — His Patience and Amiability. — Peel- 
ing with which he was regarded. — Emerson and 
Burns. — His Religious Belief. — His Relations with 
Clergymen. — Future of his Reputation. — His Life 
judged by the Ideal Standard 357 



INTRODUCTION. 



" I have the feeling that every man's biog- 
raphy is at his own expense. He furnishes not 
only the facts, but the report. I mean that all 
biography is autobiography. It is only what he 
tells of himself that comes to be known and 
believed." 

So writes the man whose life we are to pass 
in review, and it is certainly as true of him as 
of any author we could name. He delineates 
-himself so perfectly in his various writings that 
the careful reader sees his nature just as it was 
in all its essentials, and has little more to learn 
than those human accidents which individualize 
him in space and time. About all these acci- 
dents we have a natural and pardonable curios- 
ity. We wish to know of what race he came, 
what were the conditions into which he was 
born, what educational and social influences 
helped to mould his character, and what new 
elements Nature added to make him Ralph 
Waldo Emerson. 

He himself believes in the hereditary trans- 



2 INTRODUCTION. 

mission of certain characteristics. Though Na- 
ture appears capricious, he says, " Some quali- 
ties she carefully fixes and transmits, but some, 
and those the finer, she exhales with the breath 
of the individual, as too costly to perpetuate. 
But I notice also that they may become fixed 
and permanent in any stock, by painting and 
repainting them on every individual, until at 
last Nature adopts them and bakes them in her 
porcelain." 

We have in New England a certain number 
of families who constitute what may be called 
the Academic Races. Their names have been 
on college catalogues for generation after gener- 
ation. They have filled the learned professions, 
more especially the ministry, from the old colo- 
nial days to our own time. If aptitudes for the 
acquisition of knowledge can be bred into a 
family as the qualities the sportsman wants in 
his dog are developed in pointers and setters, we 
know what we may expect of a descendant of 
one of the Academic Races. Other things be- 
ing equal, he will take more naturally, more 
easily, to his books. His features will be more 
pliable, his voice will be more flexible, his whole 
nature more plastic than those of the j^outh with 
less favoring antecedents. The gift of genius is 
never to be reckoned upon beforehand, any more 



INTROD UCTION. 3 

than a choice new variety of pear or peach in a 
seedling ; it is always a surprise, but it is born 
with great advantages when the stock from 
which it springs has been long under cultiva- 
tion. 

These thoughts suggest themselves in looking 
back at the striking record of the family made 
historic by the birth of Ralph Waldo Emerson. 
It was remarkable for the long succession of 
clergymen in its genealogy, and for the large 
number of college graduates it counted on its 
rolls. 

A genealogical table is very apt to illustrate 
the " survival of the fittest," — in the estimate 
of the descendants. It is inclined to remember 
and record those ancestors who do most honor 
to the living heirs of the family name and tra- 
ditions. As every man may count two grand- 
fathers, four great-grandfathers, eight great- 
great-grandfathers, and so on, a few generations 
give him a good chance for selection. If he 
adds his distinguished grandmothers, he may 
double the number of personages to choose from. 
The great-grandfathers of Mr. Emerson at the 
sixth remove were thirty-two in number, unless 
the list was shortened by intermarriage of rela- 
tions. One of these, from whom the name de- 
scended, was Thomas Emerson of Ipswich, who 



4 INTRODUCTION. 

furnished the staff of life to the people of that 
wonderfully interesting old town and its neigh- 
borhood. 

His son, the Reverend Joseph Emerson, min- 
ister of the town of Mendon, Massachusetts, 
married Elizabeth, daughter of the Reverend 
Edward Bulkeley, who succeeded his father, the 
Reverend Peter Bulkeley, as Minister of Con- 
cord, Massachusetts. 

Peter Bulkeley was therefore one of Emer- 
son's sixty-two grandfathers at the seventh re- 
move. We know the tenacity of certain family 
characteristics through long lines of descent, and 
it is not impossible that any one of a hundred 
and twenty-four grandparents, if indeed the full 
number existed in spite of family admixtures, 
may have transmitted his or her distinguishing 
traits through a series of lives that cover more 
than two centuries, to our own contemporary. 
Inherited qualities move along their several 
paths not unlike the pieces in the game of chess. 
Sometimes the character of the son can be 
traced directly to that of the father or of the 
mother, as the pawn's move carries him from 
one square to the next. Sometimes a series of 
distinguished fathers follows in a line, or a suc- 
cession of superior mothers, as the black or 
white bishop sweeps the board on his own color. 
Sometimes the distinguishing characters pass 



INTRODUCTION. 5 

from one sex to the other indifferently, as the 
castle strides over the black and white squares. 
Sometimes an uncle or aunt lives over again in 
a nephew or niece, as if the knight's move were 
repeated on the squares of human individuality. 
It is not impossible, then, that some of the qual- 
ities we mark in Emerson may have come from 
the remote ancestor whose name figures with 
distinction in the early history of New Eng- 
land. 

The Reverend Peter Bulkeley is honorably 
commemorated among the worthies consigned to 
immortality in that precious and entertaining 
medley of fact and fancy, enlivened by a wilder- 
ness of quotations at first or second hand, the 
Magnolia Christi Americana, of the Reverend 
Cotton Mather. The old chronicler tells his story 
so much better than any one can tell it" for him 
that he must be allowed to speak for himself in 
a few extracts, transferred with all their typo- 
graphical idiosyncrasies from the London-printed 
folio of 1702. 

" He was descended of an Honourable Family in 
Bedfordshire. — He was born at Woodhil (or Odel) 
in Bedfordshire, January 31st, 1582. 

" His Education was answerable unto his Origi- 
nal ; it was Learned, it was Genteel, and, which was 
the top of all, it was very Pious : At length it made 
him a Batchellor of Divinity, and a Fellow of Saint 
John's Colledge in Cambridge. 



6 INTRODUCTION. 

" When he came abroad into the World, a good 
benefice befel him, added unto the estate of a Gen- 
tleman, left him by his Father ; whom he succeeded 
in his Ministry, at the place of his Nativity : Which 
one would imagine Temptations enough to keep him 
out of a Wilderness" 

But lie could not conscientiously conform to 
the ceremonies of the English Church, and so, — 

" When Sir Nathaniel Brent was Arch-Bishop 
Laud's General, as Arch-Bishop Laud was another's, 
Complaints were made against Mr. Bulkly, for his 
Non-Conformity, and he was therefore Silenced. 

" To New-England he therefore came, in the Year 
1635 ; and there having been for a while, at Cam- 
bridge, he carried a good Number of Planters with 
him, up further into the Woods, where they gathered 
the Twelfth Church, then formed in the Colony, and 
call'd the Town by the Name of Concord. 

" Here he buried a great Estate, while he raised 
one still, for almost every Person whom he employed 
in the Affairs of his Husbandry. — 

" He was a most excellent Scholar, a very-ivell 
read Person, and one, who in his advice to young 
Students, gave Demonstrations, that he knew what 
would go to make a Scholar. But it being essential 
unto a Scholar to love a Scholar, so did he ; and in 
Token thereof, endowed the Library of Harvard- 
Colledge with no small part of his own. 

" And he was therewithal a most exalted Chris- 
tian — "In his Ministry he was another Far el, Quo 



INTRODUCTION. 7 

nemo tonuit fortius — And the observance which his 
own People had for him, was also paid him from all 
sorts of People throughout the Land ; but especially 
from the Ministers of the Country, who would still 
address him as a Father, a Prophet, a Counsellor, on 
all occasions." 

These extracts may not quite satisfy the ex- 
acting reader, who must be referred to the old 
folio from which they were taken, where he will 
receive the following counsel : — 

" If then any Person would know what Mr. 
Peter Bulkly was, let him read his Judicious 
and Savory Treatise of the Gospel Covenant, 
which has passed through several Editions, with 
much Acceptance among the People of God." It 
must be added that " he had a competently good 
Stroke at Latin Poetry ; and even in his Old 
Age, affected sometimes to improve it. Many 
of his Composure are yet in our Hands." 

It is pleasant to believe that some of the qual- 
ities of this distinguished scholar and Christian 
were reproduced in the descendant whose life we 
are studying. At his death in 1659 he was suc- 
ceeded, as was mentioned, by his son Edward, 
whose daughter became the wife of the Reverend 
Joseph Emerson, the minister of Mendon who, 
when that village was destroyed by the Indians, 
removed to Concord, where he died in the year 
1680. This is the first connection of the name 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

of Emerson with Concord, with which it has 
since been so long associated. 

Edward Emerson, son of the first and father 
of the second Reverend Joseph Emerson, though 
not a minister, was the next thing to being one, 
for on his gravestone he is thus recorded : " Mr. 
Edward Emerson, sometime Deacon of the first 
church in Newbury." He was noted for the 
virtue of patience, and it is a family tradition 
that he never complained but once, when he 
said mildly to his daughter that her dumplings 
were somewhat harder than needful, — " hut not 
often" This same Edward was the only break 
in the line of ministers who descended from 
Thomas of Ipswich. He is remembered in the 
family as having been " a merchant in Charles- 
town." 

Their son, the second Reverend Joseph Emer- 
son, Minister of Maiden for nearly half a cen- 
tury, married Mary, the daughter of the Rev- 
erend Samuel Moody, — Father Moody, — of 
York, Maine. Three of his sons were ministers, 
and one of these, William, was pastor of the 
church at Concord at the period of the outbreak 
of the Revolutionary War. 

As the successive generations narrow down 
towards the individual whose life we are recall- 
ing, the character of his progenitors becomes 
more and more important and interesting to the 



INTRODUCTION. 9 

biographer. The Reverend William Emerson, 
grandfather of Ralph Waldo, was an excellent 
and popular preacher and an ardent and devoted 
patriot. He preached resistance to tyrants from 
the pulpit, he encouraged his townsmen and 
their allies to make a stand against the soldiers 
who had marched upon their peaceful village, 
and would have taken a part in the Fight at the 
Bridge, which he saw from his own house, had 
not the friends around him prevented his quit- 
ting his doorstep. He left Concord in 1776 to 
join the army at Ticonderoga, was taken with 
fever, was advised to return to Concord and set 
out on the journey, but died on his way. His 
wife was the daughter of the Reverend Daniel 
Bliss, his predecessor in the pulpit at Concord. 
This was another very noticeable personage in 
the line of Emerson's ancestors. His merits and 
abilities are described at great length on his 
tombstone in the Concord burial-ground. There 
is no reason to doubt that his epitaph was com- 
posed by one who knew him well. But the 
slabs which record the excellences of our New 
England clergymen of the past generations are 
so crowded with virtues that the reader can 
hardly help inquiring whether a sharp bargain 
was not driven with the stonecutter, like that 
which the good Yicar of Wakefield arranged 
with the portrait-painter. He was to represent 



1 INT ROD UCTION. 

Sophia as a shepherdess, it will be remembered, 
with as many sheep as he could afford to put in 
for nothing. 

William Emerson left four children, a son 
bearing the same name, and three daughters, one 
of whom, Mary Moody Emerson, is well remem- 
bered as pictured for us by her nephew, Ralph 
Waldo. His widow became the wife of the 
Reverend Ezra Ripley, Doctor of Divinity, and 
his successor as Minister at Concord. 

The Reverend William Emerson, the second 
of that name and profession, and the father of 
Ralph Waldo Emerson, was born in the year 
1769, and graduated at Harvard College in 
1789. He was settled as Minister in the town 
of Harvard in the year 1792, and in 1799 be- 
came Minister of the First Church in Boston. 
In 1796 he married Ruth Haskins of Boston. 
He died in 1811, leaving five sons, of whom 
Ralph Waldo was the second. 

The interest which attaches itself to the im- 
mediate parentage of a man like Emerson leads 
us to inquire particularly about the characteris- 
tics of the Reverend William Emerson so far as 
we can learn them from his own writings and 
from the record of his contemporaries. 

The Reverend Dr. Sprague's valuable and 
well-known work, "Annals of the American 
Pulpit," contains three letters from which we 



INTROD UC TION. 11 

learn some of his leading characteristics. Dr. 
Pierce of Brookline, the faithful chronicler of 
his time, speaks of his pulpit talents as extra- 
ordinary, but thinks there was not a perfect 
sympathy between him and the people of the 
quiet little town of Harvard, while he was 
highly acceptable in the pulpits of the metrop- 
olis. In personal appearance he was attractive ; 
his voice was melodious, his utterance distinct, 
his manner agreeable. " He was a faithful and 
generous friend and knew how to forgive an 
enemy. — In his theological views perhaps he 
went farther on the liberal side than most of his 
brethren with whom he was associated. — He 
was, however, perfectly tolerant towards those 
who differed from him most widely." 

Dr. Charles Lowell, another brother minister, 
says of him, "Mr. Emerson was a handsome man, 
rather tall, with a fair complexion, his cheeks 
slightly tinted, his motions easy, graceful, and 
gentlemanlike, his manners bland and pleasant. 
He was an honest man, and expressed himself 
decidedly and emphatically, but never bluntly or 
vulgarly. — Mr. Emerson was a man of good 
sense. His conversation was edifying and use- 
ful ; never foolish or undignified. — In his the- 
ological opinions he was, to say the least, far 
from having any sympathy with Calvinism. I 
have not supposed that he was, like Dr. Free- 



1 2 INT ROD UCTION. 

man, a Humanitarian, though he may have been 
so." 

There was no honester chronicler than our 
clerical Pepys, good, hearty, sweet-souled, fact- 
loving Dr. John Pierce of Brookline, who knew 
the dates of birth and death of the graduates of 
Harvard, starred and unstarred, better, one is 
tempted to say (Hibemice), than they did them- 
selves. There was not a nobler gentleman in 
charge of any Boston parish than Dr. Charles 
Lowell. But after the pulpit has said what it 
thinks of the pulpit, it is well to listen to what 
the pews have to say about it. 

This is what the late Mr. George Ticknor said 
in an article in the " Christian Examiner " for 
September, 1849. 

" Mr. Emerson, transplanted to the First 
Church in Boston six years before Mr. Buck- 
minster's settlement, possessed, on the contrary, 
a graceful and dignified style of speaking, which 
was by no means without its attraction, but he 
lacked the fervor that could rouse the masses, 
and the original resources that could command 
the few." 

As to his religious beliefs, Emerson writes to 
Dr. Sprague as follows : " I did not find in any 
manuscript or printed sermons that I looked at, 
any very explicit statement of opinion on the 
question between Calvinists and Socinians. He 



INTRODUCTION. 13 

inclines obviously to what is ethical and uni- 
versal in Christianity ; very little to the personal 
and historical. — I think I observe in his writ- 
ings, as in the writings of Unitarians down to a 
recent date, a studied reserve on the subject of 
the nature and offices of Jesus. They had not 
made up their own minds on it. It was a mys- 
tery to them, and they let it remain so." 

Mr. William Emerson left, published, fifteen 
Sermons and Discourses, an Oration pronounced 
at Boston on the Fourth of July, 1802, a Col- 
lection of Psalms and Hymns, an Historical 
Sketch of the First Church in Boston, besides 
his contributions to the " Monthly Anthology," 
of which he was the Editor. 

Ruth Haskins, the wife of William and the 
mother of Ralph Waldo Emerson, is spoken of 
by the late Dr. Frothingham, in an article in the 
" Christian Examiner," as a woman 4i of great 
patience and fortitude, of the serenest trust in 
God, of a discerning spirit, and a most courte- 
ous bearing, one who knew how to guide the 
affairs of her own house, as long as she was re- 
sponsible for that, with the sweetest authority, 
and knew how to give the least trouble and the 
greatest happiness after that authority was re- 
signed. Both her mind and her character were 
of a superior order, and they set their stamp 
upon manners of peculiar softness and natural 



14 INTRODUCTION. 

grace and quiet dignity. Her sensible and 
kindly speech was always as good as the best 
instruction; her smile, though it was ever ready, 
was a reward." 

The Reverend Dr. Furness of Philadelphia, 
who grew up with her son, says, " Waldo bore a 
strong resemblance to his father ; the other chil- 
dren resembled their mother." 

Such was the descent of Ralph Waldo Emer- 
son. If the ideas of parents survive as impres- 
sions or tendencies in their descendants, no man 
had a better right to an inheritance of theologi- 
cal instincts than this representative of a long 
line of ministers. The same trains of thought 
and feeling might naturally gain in force from 
another association of near family relationship, 
though not of blood. After the death of the 
first William Emerson, the Concord minister, 
his widow, Mr. Emerson's grandmother, mar- 
ried, as has been mentioned, his successor, Dr. 
Ezra Ripley. The grandson spent much time in 
the family of Dr. Ripley, whose character he 
has drawn with exquisite felicity in a sketch 
read before The Social Club of Concord, and 
published in the " Atlantic Monthly " for No- 
vember, 1883. Mr. Emerson says of him : 
" He was identified with the ideas and forms of 
the New England Church, which expired about 
the same time with him, so that he and his 



INTRODUCTION. 15 

coevals seemed the rear guard of the great camp 
and army of the Puritans, which, however in 
its last days declining into formalism, in the 
heyday of its strength had planted and liber- 
ated America. . . . The same faith made what 
was strong and what was weak in Dr. Ripley.'' 
It would be hard to find a more perfect sketch 
of character than Mr. Emerson's living picture 
of Dr. Ripley. I myself remember him as a 
comely little old gentleman, but he was not so 
communicative in a strange household as his 
clerical brethren, smiling John Foster of Brigh- 
ton and chatty Jonathan Homer of Newton. 
Mr. Emerson says, " He was a natural gentle- 
man ; no dandy, but courtly, hospitable, manly, 
and public-spirited ; his nature social, his house 
open to all men. — His brow was serene and 
open to his visitor, for he loved men, and he had 
no studies, no occupations, which company could 
interrupt. His friends were his study, and to 
see them loosened his talents and his tongue. 
In his house dwelt order and prudence and 
plenty. There was no waste and no stint. He 
was open-handed and just and generous. In- 
gratitude and meanness in his beneficiaries did 
not wear out his compassion ; he bore the insult, 
and the next day his basket for the beggar, his 
horse and chaise for the cripple, were at their 
door." How like Goldsmith's good Dr. Prim- 



16 INTR OD UCTION. 

rose ! I do not know any writing of Mr. Emer- 
son which brings out more fully his sense of 
humor, — of the picturesque in character, — 
and as a piece of composition, continuous, fluid, 
transparent, with a playful ripple here and 
there, it is admirable and delightful. 

Another of his early companionships must 
have exercised a still more powerful influence on 
his character, — that of his aunt, Mary Moody 
Emerson. He gave an account of her in a paper 
read before the Woman's Club several years ago, 
and published in the " Atlantic Monthly " for 
December, 1883. Far more of Mr. Emerson is 
to be found in this aunt of his than in any other 
of his relations in the ascending series, with 
whose history we are acquainted. Her story is 
an interesting one, but for that I must refer the 
reader to the article mentioned. Her character 
and intellectual traits are what we are most con- 
cerned with. " Her early reading was Milton, 
Young, Akenside, Samuel Clarke, Jonathan 
Edwards, and always the Bible. Later, Plato, 
Plotinus, Marcus Antoninus, Stewart, Cole- 
ridge, Herder, Locke, Madam De Stael, Chan- 
ning, Mackintosh, Byron. Nobody can read in 
her manuscript, or recall the conversation of 
old-school people, without seeing that Milton 
and Young had a religious authority in their 
minds, and nowise the slight merely entertain- 



INTRODUCTION. 17 

ing quality of modern bards. And Plato, Aris- 
totle, Plotinus, — how venerable and organic as 
Nature they are in her mind ! " 

There are many sentences cited by Mr. Emer- 
son which remind us very strongly of his own 
writings. Such a passage as the following might 
have come from his Essay, " Nature," but it was 
written when her nephew was only four years 
old. 

" Maiden, 1807, September. — The rapture of feel- 
ing I would part from for days devoted to higher 
discipline. But when Nature beams with such excess 
of beauty, when the heart thrills with hope in its Au- 
thor, — feels it is related to Him more than by any 
ties of creation, — it exults, too fondly, perhaps, for 
a state of trial. But in dead of night, nearer morn- 
ing, when the eastern stars glow, or appear to glow, 
with more indescribable lustre, a lustre which pene- 
trates the spirits with wonder and curiosity, — then, 
however awed, who can fear ? " — "A few pulsa- 
tions of created beings, a few successions of acts, a 
few lamps held out in the firmament, enable us to talk 
of Time, make epochs, write histories, — to do more, 
— to date the revelations of God to man. But these 
lamps are held to measure out some of the moments 
of eternity, to divide the history of God's operations 
in the birth and death of nations, of worlds. It is a 
goodly name for our notions of breathing, suffering, 
enjoying, acting. We personify it. We call it by 
every name of fleeting, dreaming, vaporing imagery. 
2 



18 INTRODUCTION. 

Yet it is nothing. We exist in eternity. Dissolve 
the body and the night is gone ; the stars are extin- 
guished, and we measure duration by the number of 
our thoughts, by the activity of reason, the discovery 
of truths, the acquirement of virtue, the approval of 
God." 

Miss Mary Emerson showed something of the 
same feeling towards natural science which may 
be noted in her nephews Waldo and Charles. 
After speaking of " the poor old earth's chaotic 
state, brought so near in its long and gloomy 
transmutings by the geologist," she says : — 

" Yet its youthful charms, as decked by the hand 
of Moses' Cosmogony, will linger about the heart, 
while Poetry succumbs to science." — " And the bare 
bones of this poor embryo earth may give the idea 
of the Infinite, far, far better than when dignified 
with arts and industry ; its oceans, when beating the 
symbols of countless ages, than when covered with 
cargoes of war and oppression. How grand its prep- 
aration for souls, souls who were to feel the Divinity, 
before Science had dissected the emotions and ap- 
plied its steely analysis to that state of being which 
recognizes neither psychology nor element." — Use- 
fulness, if it requires action, seems less like existence 
than the desire of being absorbed in God, retaining 
^consciousness. . . . Scorn trifles, lift your aims; do 
v/ what you are afraid to do. Sublimity of character 
A must come from sublimity of motive." 



INTRODUCTION. 19 

So far as hereditary and family influences can 
account for the character and intellect of Ralph 
Waldo Emerson, we could hardly ask for a bet- 
ter inborn inheritance, or better counsels and 
examples. 

Having traced some of the distinguishing traits 
which belong by descent to Mr. Emerson to those 
who were before him, it is interesting to note how 
far they showed themselves in those of his own 
generation, his brothers. Of these I will men- 
tion two, one of whom I knew personally. 

Edward Bliss Emerson, who graduated at 
Harvard College in 1824, three years after 
Ralph Waldo, held the first place in his class. 
He began the study of the law with Daniel 
Webster, but overworked himself and suffered 
a temporary disturbance of his reason. After 
this he made another attempt, but found his 
health unequal to the task and exiled himself to 
Porto Rico, where, in 1834, he died. Two 
poems preserve his memory, one that of Ralph 
Waldo, in which he addresses his memory, — 

" Ah, brother of the brief but blazing star," 

the other his own " Last Farewell," written in 
1832, whilst sailing out of Boston Harbor. The 
lines are unaffected and very touching, full of 
that deep affection which united the brothers in 



20 INTRODUCTION. 

the closest intimacy, and of the tenderestlove for 
the mother whom he was leaving to see no more. 

I had in my early youth a key furnished me 
to some of the leading traits which were in due 
time to develop themselves in Emerson's charac- 
ter and intelligence. As on the wall of some 
great artist's studio one may find unfinished 
sketches which he recognizes as the first growing 
conceptions of pictures painted in after years, so 
we see that Nature often sketches, as it were, a 
living portrait, which she leaves in its rudiment- 
ary condition, perhaps for the reason that earth 
has no colors which can worthily fill in an outline 
too perfect for humanity. The sketch is left 
in its consummate incompleteness because this 
mortal life is not rich enough to carry out the 
Divine idea. 

Such an unfinished but unmatched outline is 
that which I find in the long portrait - gallery 
of memory, recalled by the name of Charles 
Chauncy Emerson. Save for a few brief 
glimpses of another, almost lost among my life's 
early shadows, this youth was the most angelic 
adolescent my eyes ever beheld. Remembering 
what well-filtered blood it was that ran in the 
veins of the race from which he was descended, 
those who knew him in life might well say with 
Dryden, — 



INTRODUCTION. 21 

** If by traduction came thy mind 
Our wonder is the less to find 
A soul so charming from a stock so good." 

His image is with me in its immortal youth as 
when, almost fifty years ago, I spoke of him in 
these lines, which I may venture to quote from 
myself, since others have quoted them before me. 

Thou calm, chaste scholar ! I can see thee now, 

The first young laurels on thy pallid brow, 

O'er thy slight figure floating lightly down 

In graceful folds the academic gown, 

On thy curled lip the classic lines that taught 

How nice the mind that sculptured them with thought, 

And triumph glistening in the clear blue eye, 

Too bright to live, — but O, too fair to die. 

Being about seven years younger than Waldo, he 
must have received much of his intellectual and 
moral guidance at his elder brother's hands. I 
told the story at a meeting of our Historical 
Society of Charles Emerson's coming into my 
study, — this was probably in 1826 or 1827, — 
taking up Hazlitt's " British Poets " and turning 
at once to a poem of Marvell's, which he read 
with his entrancing voice and manner. The 
influence of this poet is plain to every reader in 
some of Emerson's poems, and Charles' liking 
for him was very probably caught from Waldo. 
When Charles was nearly through college, a 
periodical called "The Harvard Register" was 



2 2 I NT ROD UCTION. 

published by students and recent graduates. 
Three articles were contributed by him to this 
periodical. Two of them have the titles " Con- 
versation," " Friendship." His quotations are 
from Horace and Juvenal, Plato, Plutarch, Ba- 
con, Jeremy Taylor, Shakespeare, and Scott. 
There are passages in these Essays which remind 
one strongly of his brother, the Lecturer of 
twenty-five or thirty years later. Take this as 
an example : — 

" Men and mind are my studies. I need no ob- 
servatory high in air to aid my perceptions or enlarge 
my prospect. I do not want a costly apparatus to* 
give pomp to my pursuit or to disguise its inutility. I 
do not desire to travel and see foreign lands and learn 
all knowledge and speak with all tongues, before I 
am prepared for my employment. I have merely to 
go out of my door ; nay, I may stay at home at my 
chambers, and I shall have enough to do and enjoy." 

The feeling of this sentence shows itself con- 
stantly in Emerson's poems. He finds his in- 
spiration in the objects about him, the forest in 
which he walks ; the sheet of water which the 
hermit of a couple of seasons made famous ; the 
lazy Musketaquid ; the titmouse that mocked his 
weakness in the bitter cold winter's day ; the 
mountain that rose in the horizon ; the lofty 
pines ; the lowly flowers. All talked with him 



INTRODUCTION. 23 

as brothers and sisters, and he with them as of 
his own household. 

The same lofty idea of friendship which we 
find in the man in his maturity, we recognize in 
one of the Essays of the youth. 

" All men of gifted intellect and fine genius," says 
Charles Emerson, " must entertain a noble idea of 
friendship. Our reverence we are constrained to 
yield where it is due, — to rank, merit, talents. But 
our affections we give not thus easily. 

' The hand of Douglas is his own.' " 
— "I am willing to lose an hour in gossip with per- 
-sons whom good men hold cheap. All this I will do 
out of regard to the decent conventions of polite life. 
But my friends I must know, and, knowing, I must 
love. There must be a daily beauty in their life that 
shall secure my constant attachment. T cannot stand 
upon the footing of ordinary acquaintance. Friend- 
ship is aristocratical — the affections which are pros- 
: tituted to every suitor I will not accept." 

Here are glimpses of what the youth was 
to be, of what the man who long outlived him 
became. Here is the dignity which commands 
reverence, — a dignity which, with all Ralph 
Waldo Emerson's sweetness of manner and ex- 
pression, rose almost to majesty in his serene 
presence. There was something about Charles 
Emerson which lifted those he was with into 
a lofty and pure region of thought and feeling. 



24 INTRODUCTION. 

A vulgar soul stood abashed in his presence. I 
could never think of him in the presence of such, 
listening to a paltry sentiment or witnessing a 
mean action without recalling Milton's line, 

" Back stepped those two fair angels half amazed," 

and thinking how he might well have been 
taken for a celestial messenger. 

No doubt there is something of idealization 
in all these reminiscences, and of that exaggera- 
tion which belongs to the laudator temporis acti. 
But Charles Emerson was idolized in his own 
time by many in college and out of college. 
George Stillman Hillard was his rival. Neck 
and neck they ran the race for the enviable posi- 
tion of first scholar in the class of 1828, and 
when Hillard was announced as having the first 
part assigned to him, the excitement within the 
college walls, and to some extent outside of 
them, was like that when the telegraph proclaims 
the result of a Presidential election, — or the 
Winner of the Derby. But Hillard honestly 
admired his brilliant rival. "Who has a part 
with * * * * at this next exhibition ? " I asked 
him one day, as I met him in the college yard. 
****** the Post," answered Hillard. " Why 
call him the Post f " said I. " He is a wooden 
creature," said Hillard. " Hear him and Charles 
Emerson translating from the Latin Domus 



INTRODUCTION. 25 

tota inflammata erat. The Post will render the 
words, ' The whole house was on fire.' Charles 
Emerson will translate the sentence 4 The en- 
tire edifice was wrapped in flames.' ' It was 
natural enough that a young admirer should 
prefer the Bernini drapery of Charles Emerson's 
version to the simple nudity of " the Post's " 
rendering. 

The nest is made ready long beforehand for 
the bird which is to be bred in it and to fly 
from it. The intellectual atmosphere into which 
a scholar is born, and from which he draws the 
breath of his early mental life, must be stud- 
ied if we would hope to understand him thor- 
oughly. 

When the present century began, the ele- 
ments, thrown into confusion by the long strug- 
gle for Independence, had not had time to 
arrange themselves in new combinations. The 
active intellects of the country had found enough 
to keep them busy in creating and organizing a 
new order of political and social life. What- 
ever purely literary talent existed was as yet in 
the nebular condition, a diffused luminous spot 
here and there, waiting to form centres of con- 
densation./ 

Such a nebular spot had been brightening in 
and about Boston for a number of years, when, 



26 INTRODUCTION. 

in the year 1804, a small cluster of names be- 
came visible as representing a modest constella- 
tion of literary luminaries : John Thornton 
Kirkland, afterwards President of Harvard Uni- 
versity ; Joseph Stevens Buckminster ; John 
Sylvester John Gardiner ; William Tudor ; Sam- 
uel Cooper Thacher ; William Emerson. These 
were the chief stars of the new cluster, and their 
light reached the world, or a small part of it, 
as reflected from the pages of "The Monthly 
Anthology," which very soon came under the 
editorship of the Reverend William Emerson. 

The father of Ralph Waldo Emerson may 
be judged of in good measure by the associates 
with whom he was thus connected. A brief 
sketch of these friends and fellow-workers of his 
may not be out of place, for these men made the 
local sphere of thought into which Ralph Waldo 
Emerson was born. 

John Thornton Kirkland should have been 
seen and heard as he is remembered by old grad- 
uates of Harvard, sitting in the ancient Presi- 
dential Chair, on Commencement Day, and call- 
ing in his penetrating but musical accents : " Ex- 
pectatur Oratio in Lingua Latina " or " Ver- 
nacula" if the " First Scholar " was about 
to deliver the English oration. It was a pres- 
ence not to be forgotten. His " shining morn- 
ing face " was round as a baby's, and talked as 



INTRODUCTION. -27 

pleasantly as his voice did, with smiles for ac- 
cents and dimples for punctuation. Mr. Tick- 
nor speaks of his sermons as " full of intellectual 
wealth and practical wisdom, with sometimes a 
quaintness that bordered on humor." It was 
of him that the story was always told, — it may 
be as old as the invention of printing, — that he 
threw his sermons into a barrel, where they went 
to pieces and got mixed up, and that when he 
was going to preach he fished out what he 
thought would be about enough for a sermon, and 
patched the leaves together as he best might. 
The Reverend Dr. Lowell says : " He always 
found the right piece, and that was better than 
almost any of his brethren could have found in 
what they had written with twice the labor." Mr. 
Cabot, who knew all Emerson's literary habits, 
says he used to fish out the number of leaves he 
wanted for a lecture in somewhat the same way. 
Emerson's father, however, was very methodical, 
according to Dr. Lowell, and had " a place for 
everything, and everything in its place." Dr. 
Kirkland left little to be remembered by, and 
like many of the most interesting personalities 
we have met with, has become a very thin ghost 
to the grandchildren of his contemporaries. 

Joseph Stevens Buckminster was the pulpit 
darling of his day, in Boston. The beauty of 
his person, the perfection of his oratory, the 



28 INTRODUCTION. 

finish, of his style, added to the sweetness of his 
character, made him one of those living idols 
which seem to be as necessary to Protestantism 
as images and pictures are to Romanism. 

John Sylvester John Gardiner, once a pupil 
of the famous Dr. Parr, was then the leading 
Episcopal clergyman of Boston. Him I recon- 
struct from scattered hints I have met with as a 
scholarly, social man, with a sanguine tempera- 
ment and the cheerful ways of a wholesome 
English parson, blest with a good constitution 
and a comfortable benefice. Mild Orthodoxy, 
ripened in Unitarian sunshine, is a very agree- 
able aspect of Christianity, and none was read- 
ier than Dr. Gardiner, if the voice of tradition 
may be trusted, to fraternize with his brothers 
of the liberal persuasion, and to make common 
cause with them in all that related to the inter- 
ests of learning. 

William Tudor was a chief connecting link 
between the period of the "Monthly Anthol- 
ogy," and that of the "North American Re- 
view," for he was a frequent contributor to the 
first of these periodicals, and he was the founder 
of the second. Edward Everett characterizes 
him, in speaking of his " Letters on the Eastern 
States," as a scholar and a gentleman, an impar- 
tial observer, a temperate champion, a liberal 
opponent, and a correct writer. Daniel Web- 



INTRODUCTION. 29 

ster bore similar testimony to his talents and 
character. 

Samuel Cooper Thacher was hardly twenty 
years old when the " Anthology " was founded, 
and died when he was only a little more than 
thirty. He contributed largely to that period- 
ical, besides publishing various controversial ser- 
mons, and writing the " Memoir of Buckmin- 
ster." 

There was no more brilliant circle than this in 
any of our cities. There was none where so 
much freedom of thought was united to so much 
scholarship. The "Anthology" was the liter- 
ary precursor of the " North American Review," 
and the theological herald of the " Christian 
Examiner." Like all first beginnings it showed 
many marks of immaturity. It mingled extracts 
and original contributions, theology and medi- 
cine, with all manner of literary chips and shav- 
ings. It had Magazine ways that smacked of 
Sylvanus Urban ; leading articles with balanced 
paragraphs which recalled the marching tramp 
of Johnson ; translations that might have been 
signed with the name of Creech, and Odes to 
Sensibility, and the like, which recalled the 
syrupy sweetness and languid trickle of Laura 
Matilda's sentimentalities. It talked about " the 
London Reviewers " with a kind of provincial 
deference. It printed articles with quite too 



30 INTRODUCTION. 

much of the license of Swift and Prior for 
the Magazines of to-day. But it had opinions 
of its own, and would compare well enough with 
the " Gentleman's Magazine," to say nothing 
of " My Grandmother's Review, the British." 
A writer in the third volume (1806) says : " A 
taste for the belles lettres is rapidly spreading 
in our country. I believe that, fifty years ago, 
England had never seen a Miscellany or a 
Review so well conducted as our 'Anthology,' 
however superior such publications may now be 
in that kingdom." 

It is well worth one's while to look over the 
volumes of the "Anthology" to see what our 
fathers and grandfathers were thinking about, 
and how they expressed themselves. The stiff- 
ness of Puritanism was pretty well relaxed when 
a Magazine conducted by clergymen could say 
that " The child," — meaning the new periodical, 
— " shall not be destitute of the manners of a 
gentleman, nor a stranger to genteel amusements. 
He shall attend Theatres, Museums, Balls, and 
whatever polite diversions the town shall fur- 
nish." The reader of the " Anthology " will 
find for his reward an improving discourse on 
" Ambition," and a commendable schoolboy's 
" theme " on " Inebriation." He will learn 
something which may be for his advantage about 
the " Anjou Cabbage," and may profit by a 



INTRODUCTION. 31 

" Remedy for Asthma." A controversy respect- 
ing the merits of Sir Richard Blackmore may 
prove too little exciting at the present time, and 
he can turn for relief to the epistle " Studiosus " 
addresses to " Alcander." If the lines of " The 
Minstrel" who hails, like Longfellow in later 
years, from " The District of Main," fail to 
satisfy him, he cannot accuse " R. T. Paine, Jr., 
Esq.," of tameness when he exclaims : — 

" Rise Columbia, brave and free, 
Poise the globe and bound the sea ! " 

But the writers did not confine themselves to 
native or even to English literature, for there is 
a distinct mention of " Mr. Goethe's new novel," 
and an explicit reference to " Dante Aligheri, an 
Italian bard." But let the smiling reader go a 
little farther and he will find Mr. Buckminster's 
most interesting account of the destruction of 
Goldau. And in one of these same volumes 
he will find the article, by Dr. Jacob Bigelow, 
doubtless, which was the first hint of our rural 
cemeteries, and foreshadowed that new era in 
our underground civilization which is sweeten- 
ing our atmospheric existence. 

The late President Josiah Quincy, in his 
" History of the Boston Athenaeum," pays a 
high tribute of respect to the memory and the 
labors of the gentlemen who founded that insti- 
tution and conducted the "Anthology." A lit- 



32 INTRODUCTION. 

erary journal had already been published in Bos- 
ton, but very soon failed for want of patronage. 
An enterprising firm of publishers, " being desir- 
ous that the work should be continued, applied 
to the Reverend William Emerson, a clergy- 
man of the place, distinguished for energy and 
literary taste ; and by his exertions several gen- 
tlemen of Boston and its vicinity, conspicuous 
for talent and zealous for literature, were in- 
duced to engage in conducting the work, and for 
this purpose they formed themselves into a Soci- 
ety. This Society was not completely organized 
until the year 1805, when Dr. Gardiner was 
elected President, and William Emerson Vice- 
President. The Society thus formed maintained 
its existence with reputation for about six years, 
and issued ten octavo volumes from the press, 
constituting one of the most lasting and honor- 
able monuments of the literature of the period, 
and may be considered as a true revival of po- 
lite learning in this country after that decay and 
neglect which resulted from the distractions of 
the Revolutionary War, and as forming an epoch 
in the intellectual history of the United States. 
Its records yet remain, an evidence that it was a 
pleasant, active, high-principled association of 
literary men, laboring harmoniously to elevate 
the literary standard of the time, and with a 
success which may well be regarded as remark- 



INTRODUCTION. 33 

able, considering the little sympathy they re- 
ceived from the community, and the many diffi- 
culties with which they had to struggle." 

The publication of the " Anthology " began 
in 1804, when Mr. William Emerson was thirty- 
four years of age, and it ceased to be published 
in the year of his death, 1811. Ralph Waldo 
Emerson was eight years old at that time. His 
intellectual life began, we may say, while the 
somewhat obscure afterglow of the "Anthol- 
ogy" was in the western horizon of the New 
England sky. 

The nebula which was to form a cluster about 
the "North American Review" did not take 
definite shape until 1815. There is no such 
memorial of the growth of American literature 
as is to be found in the first half century of that 
periodical. It is easy to find fault with it for 
uniform respectability and occasional dulness. 
But take the names of its contributors during its 
first fifty years from the literary record of that 
period, and we should have but a meagre list of 
mediocrities, saved from absolute poverty by the 
genius of two or three writers like Irving and 
Cooper. Strike out the names of Webster, Ev- 
erett, Story, Sumner, and Gushing ; of Bryant, 
Dana, Longfellow, and Lowell ; of Prescott, 
Ticknor, Motley, Sparks, and Bancroft ; of Ver- 

planck, Hillard, and Whipple ; of Stuart and 
3 



84 INTRODUCTION. 

Robinson ; of Norton, Palfrey, Peabody, and 
Bowen; and, lastly, that of Emerson himself, 
and how much American classic literature would 
be left for a new edition of "Miller's Ketro- 
spect " ? 

These were the writers who helped to make 
the "North American Review" what it was 
during the period of Emerson's youth and early 
manhood. These, and men like them, gave Bos- 
ton its intellectual character. We may count 
as symbols the three hills of " this darling town 
of ours," as Emerson called it, and say that each 
had its beacon. Civil liberty lighted the torch 
on one summit, religious freedom caught the 
flame and shone from the second, and the lamp 
of the scholar has burned steadily on the third 
from the days when John Cotton preached his 
first sermon to those in which we are living. 

The social religious influences of the first part 
of the century must not be forgotten. The two 
high -caste religions of that day were white- 
handed Unitarianism and ruffled-shirt Episco- 
palianism. What called itself "society" was 
chiefly distributed between them. Within less 
than fifty years a social revolution has taken 
place which has somewhat changed the relation 
between these and other worshipping bodies. 
This movement is the general withdrawal of 
the native New Englanders of both sexes from 



INTRODUCTION. 35 

domestic service. A large part of the "hired 
help," — for the word servant was commonly re- 
pudiated, — worshipped, not with their employers, 
but at churches where few or no well-appointed 
carriages stood at the doors. The congregations 
that went chiefly from the drawing-room and 
those which were largely made up of dwellers in 
the culinary studio were naturally separated by 
a very distinct line of social cleavage. A cer- 
tain exclusiveness and fastidiousness, not remind- 
ing us exactly of primitive Christianity, was the 
inevitable result. This must always be remem- 
bered in judging the men and women of that 
day and their immediate descendants, as much 
as the surviving prejudices of those whose par- 
ents were born subjects of King George in the 
days when loyalty to the crown was a virtue. 
The line of social separation was more marked, 
probably, in Boston, the headquarters of Unita- 
rianism, than in the other large cities ; and even 
at the present day our Jerusalem and Samaria, 
though they by no means refuse dealing with 
each other, do not exchange so many cards as 
they do checks and dollars. The exodus of those 
children of Israel from the house of bondage, as 
they chose to consider it, and their fusion with 
the mass of independent citizens, got rid of a 
class distinction which was felt even in the sanc- 
tuary. True religious equality is harder to es- h 



36 INTROD UC TION. 

\ (tablish than civil liberty. No man has done 
more for spiritual republicanism than Emerson, 
though he came from the daintiest sectarian cir- 
cle of the time in the whole country. 

Such were Emerson's intellectual and moral 
parentage, nurture, and environment ; such was 
the atmosphere in which he grew up from youth 
to manhood. 



CHAPTER I. 

Birthplace. — Boyhood. — College Life. 
1803-1823. To jet. 20. 

Balph Waldo Emerson was born in Bos- 
ton, Massachusetts, on the 25th of May, 1803. 

He was the second of five sons ;/ William, R. 
W., Edward Bliss, Peter Bulkeley, and Charles 
Chauncy. 

/ His birthplace and that of our other illustri- 
ous Bostonian, Benjamin Franklin, were within 
a kite-string's distance of each other. When the 
baby philosopher of the last century was carried 
from Milk Street through the narrow passage 
long known as Bishop's Alley, now Hawley 
Street, he came out in Summer Street, very 
nearly opposite the spot where, at the beginning 
of this century, stood the parsonage of the First 
Church, the home of the Reverend William Em- 
erson, its pastor, and the birthplace of his son, 
Ralph Waldo. The oblong quadrangle between 
Newbury, now Washington Street, Pond, now 
Bedford Street, Summer Street, and the open 
space called Church Green, where the New 



88 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

South Church was afterwards erected, is repre- 
sented on Bonner's maps of 1722 and 1769 as 
an almost blank area, not crossed or penetrated 
by a single passageway. 

Even so late as less than half a century ago 
this region was still a most attractive little rus 
in urbe. The sunny gardens of the late Judge 
Charles Jackson and the late Mr. S. P. Gard- 
ner opened their flowers and ripened their fruits 
in the places now occupied by great warehouses 
and other massive edifices. The most aristo- 
cratic pears, the " Saint Michael," the fct Brown 
Bury," found their natural homes in these shel- 
tered enclosures. The fine old mansion of Judge 
William Prescott looked out upon these gardens. 
Some of us can well remember the window of 
his son's, the historian's, study, the light from 
which used every evening to glimmer through 
the leaves of the pear-trees while " The Con- 
quest of Mexico" was achieving itself under 
difficulties hardly less formidable than those en- 
countered by Cortes. It was a charmed region 
in which Emerson first drew his breath, and I 
am fortunate in having a communication from 
one who knew it and him longer than almost 
any other living person. 

Mr. John Lowell Gardner, a college classmate 
and life-long friend of Mr. Emerson, has favored 
me with a letter which contains matters of inter- 



BOYHOOD. 39 

est concerning him never before given to the 
public. With his kind permission I have made 
some extracts and borrowed such facts as seemed 
especially worthy of note from his letter. 

" I may be said to have known Emerson from the 
very beginning. A very low fence divided my fa- 
ther's estate in Summer Street from the field in which 
I remember the old wooden parsonage to have ex- 
isted, — but this field, when we were very young, was 
to be covered by Chauncy Place Church and by the 
brick houses on Summer Street. Where the family 
removed to I do not remember, but I always knew 
the boys, William, Ralph, and perhaps Edward, and 
I again associated with Ralph at the Latin School, 
where we were instructed by Master Gould from 
1815 to 1817, entering College in the latter year. 

... I have no recollection of his relative rank as 
a scholar, but it was undoubtedly high, though not the 
highest. He never was idle or a lounger, nor did he 
ever engage in frivolous pursuits. I should say that 
his conduct was absolutely faultless. It was impos- 
sible that there should be any feeling about him but 
of regard and affection. He had then the same man- 
ner and courtly hesitation in addressing you that you 
have known in him since. Still, he was not prom- 
inent in the class, and, but for what all the world has 
since known of him, his would not have been a con- 
spicuous figure to his classmates in recalling College 
days. 

" The fact that we were almost the only Latin 



40 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

School fellows in the class, and the circumstance that 
he was slow during the Freshman year to form new 
acquaintances, brought us much together, and an 
intimacy arose which continued through our College 
life. We were in the habit of taking long strolls to- 
gether, often stopping for repose at distant points, as 
at Mount Auburn, etc. . . . Emerson was not talk- 
ative ; he never spoke for effect ; his utterances were 
well weighed and very deliberately made, but there 
was a certain flash when he uttered anything that 
was more than usually worthy to be remembered. 
He was so universally amiable and complying that 
my evil spirit would sometimes instigate me to take 
advantage of his gentleness and forbearance, but 
nothing could disturb his equanimity. All that was 
wanting to render him an almost perfect character 
was a few harsher traits and perhaps more masculine 
vigor. 

" On leaving College our paths in life were so re- 
mote from each other that we met very infrequently. 
He soon became, as it were, public property, and I was 
engrossed for many years in my commercial under- 
takings. All his course of life is known to many sur- 
vivors. I am inclined to believe he had a most liberal 
spirit. I remember that some years since, when it was 

known that our classmate was reduced almost 

to absolute want by the war, in which he lost his two 
sons, Emerson exerted himself to raise a fund among 
his classmates for his relief, and, there being very few 
possible subscribers, made what I considered a noble 
contribution, and this you may be sure was not from 



BOYHOOD. 41 

any Southern sentiment on the part of Emerson. I 
send you herewith the two youthful productions of 
Emerson of which I spoke to you some time since." , 

The first of these is a prose Essay of four 
pages, written for a discussion in which the Pro- 
fessions of Divinity, Medicine, and Law T were to 
be weighed against each other. Emerson had 
the Lawyer's side to advocate. It is a fair and 
sensible paper, not of special originality or bril- 
liancy. His opening paragraph is worth citing, 
as showing the same instinct for truth which dis- 
played itself in all his after writings and the 
conduct of his life. 

" It is usual in advocating a favorite subject to 
appropriate all possible excellence, and endeavor to 
concentrate every doubtful auxiliary, that we may 
fortify to the utmost the theme of our attention. 
Such a design should be utterly disdained, except as 
far as is consistent with fairness ; and the sophistry 
of weak arguments being abandoned, a bold appeal 
should be made to the heart, for the tribute of honest 
conviction, with regard to the merits of the subject." 

From many boys this might sound like well- 
meaning commonplace, but in the history of Mr. 
Emerson's life that " bold appeal to the heart," 
that " tribute of honest conviction," were made 
eloquent and real. The boy meant it when he 
said it. To carry out his law of sincerity and 



42 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

self -trust the man had to sacrifice much that was 
dear to him, but he did not flinch from his early 
principles. 

It must not be supposed that the blameless 
youth was an ascetic in his College days. The 
other old manuscript Mr. Gardner sends me is 
marked " ' Song for Knights of Square Table/ 
R. W. E." 

There are twelve verses of this song, with a 
chorus of two lines. The Muses and all the 
deities, not forgetting Bacchus, were duly invited 
to the festival. 

" Let the doors of Olympus be open for all 
To descend and make merry in Chivalry's hall." 

Mr. Sanborn has kindly related to me several 
circumstances told him by Emerson about his 
early years. 

The parsonage was situated at the corner of 
Summer and what is now Chauncy streets. It 
had a yard, and an orchard which Emerson said 
was as large as Dr. Ripley's, which might have 
been some two or three acres. Afterwards there 
was a brick house looking on Summer Street, in 
which Emerson the father lived. It was sep- 
arated, Emerson said, by a brick wall from a 
garden in which pears grew (a fact a boy is 
likely to remember). Master Ralph Waldo used 
to sit on this wall, — but we cannot believe he 



BO YHOOD. 43 

ever got off it on the wrong side, unless politely 
asked to do so. On the occasion of some alarm 
the little boy was carried in his nightgown to a 
neighboring house. 

After Reverend William Emerson's death 
Mrs. Emerson removed to a house in Beacon 
Street, where the Athenaeum Building now 
stands. She kept some boarders, — among them 
Lemuel Shaw, afterwards Chief Justice of the 
State of Massachusetts. It was but a short dis- 
tance to the Common, and Waldo and Charles 
used to drive their mother's cow there to pasture. 

The Reverend Doctor Rufus Ellis, the much 
respected living successor of William Emerson 
as Minister of the First Church, says that R. W. 
Emerson must have been born in the old par- 
sonage, as his father (who died when he was 
eight years old) lived but a very short time in 
" the new parsonage," which was, doubtless, the 
" brick house " above referred to. 

We get a few glimpses of the boy from other 
sources. Mr. Cooke tells us that he entered the 
public grammar school at the age of eight years, 
and soon afterwards the Latin School. At the 
age of eleven he was turning Yirgil into very 
readable English heroics. He loved the study of 



L 



44 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

Greek ; was fond of reading history and given 
to the frequent writing of verses. But he thinks 
" the idle books under the bench at the Latin 
School " were as profitable to him as his regular 
studies. . 

Another glimpse of him is that given us by 
Mr. Ireland from the " Boyhood Memories " of 
Rufus Dawesi. His old schoolmate speaks of 
him as " a spiritual-looking boy in blue nankeen, 
who seems to be about ten years old, — whose 
image more than any other is still deeply stamped 
upon my mind, as I then' saw him and loved 
him, I knew not why, and thought him so an- 
gelic and remarkable." That " blue nankeen " 
sounds strangely, it may be, to the readers of this 
later generation, but in the first quarter of the 
century blue and yellow or buff-colored cotton 
from China were a common summer clothing of 
children. The places where the factories and 
streets of the cities of Lowell and Lawrence 
were to rise were then open fields and farms. 
My recollection is that we did not think very 
highly of ourselves when we were in blue nan- 
keen, — a dull-colored fabric, too nearly of the 
complexion of the slates on which we did our 
ciphering. 

Emerson was not particularly distinguished 
in College. Having a near connection in the 



COLLEGE LIFE. 45 

same class as he, and being, as a Cambridge boy, 
generally familiar with the names of the more 
noted young men in College from the year when 
George Bancroft, Caleb Cushing, and Francis 
William Winthrop graduated until after I my- 
self left College, I might have expected to hear 
something of a young man who afterwards be- 
came one of the great writers of his time. I do 
not recollect hearing of him except as keeping 
school for a short time in Cambridge, before he 
settled as a minister. His classmate, Mr. Josiah 
Quincy, writes thus of his college days : — 

" Two only of my classmates can be fairly said to 
have got into history, although one of them, Charles 
W. Upham [the connection of mine referred to above] 
has written history very acceptably. Ralph Waldo 
Emerson and Robert W. Barnwell, for widely different 
reasons^ have caused their names to be known to well- 
informed Americans. Of Emerson, I regret to say, 
there are few notices in my journals. Here is the 
sort of way in which I speak of the man who was to 
make so profound an impression upon the thought of 
his time. * I went to the chapel to hear Emerson's 
dissertation : a very good one, but rather too long to 
give much pleasure to the hearers.' The fault, I sus- 
pect, was in the hearers ; and another fact winch I 
have mentioned goes to confirm this belief. It seems 
that Emerson accepted the duty of delivering the 
Poem on Class Day, after seven others had been 



46 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

asked who positively refused. So it appears that, in 
the opinion of this critical class, the author of the 
i Woodnotes ' and the ' Humble Bee ' ranked about 
eighth in poetical ability. It can only be because the 
works of the other five [seven] have been ' heroically 
unwritten ' that a different impression has come to 
prevail in the outside world. But if, according to the 
measurement of undergraduates, Emerson's ability as 
a poet was not conspicuous, it must also be admitted 
that, in the judgment of persons old enough to know 
better, he was not credited with that mastery of 
weighty prose which the world has since accorded 
him. In our senior year the higher classes competed 
for the Boylston prizes for English composition. Em- 
erson and I sent in our essays with the rest and were 
fortunate enough to take the two prizes ; but — Alas 
for the infallibility of academic decisions ! Emerson 
received the second prize. I was of course much 
pleased with the award of this intelligent committee, 
and should have been still more gratified had they 
mentioned that the man who was to be the most orig- 
inal and influential writer born in America was my un- 
successful competitor. But Emerson, incubating over 
deeper matters than were dreamt of in the established 
/,philosophy of elegant letters, seems to have given no 
sign of the power that was fashioning itself for lead- 
ership in a new time. He was quiet, unobtrusive, and 
only a fair scholar according to the standard of the 
College authorities. And this is really all I have to 
say about my most distinguished classmate." 



COLLEGE LIFE. 47 

Barnwell, the first scholar in the class, deliv- 
ered the Valedictory Oration, and Emerson the 
Poem. Neither of these performances was highly 
spoken of by Mr. Quincy. 

I was surprised to find by one of the old Cata- 
logues that Emerson roomed during a part of his 
College course with a young man whom I well 
remember, J. G. K. Gourdin. The two Gour- 
dins, Robert and John Gaillard Keith, were 
dashing young fellows as I recollect them, be- 
longing to Charleston, South Carolina. The 
" Southerners " were the reigning College ele- 
gans of that time, the merveilleux, the mirli- 
JZores, of their day. Their swallow-tail coats 
tapered to an arrow-point angle, and the prints 
of their little delicate calfskin boots in the snow 
were objects of great admiration to the village 
boys of the period. I cannot help wondering 
what brought Emerson and the showy, fascinat- 
ing John Gourdin together as room-mates. 



\ 



CHAPTER II. 

1823-1828. JEt. 20-25. 

Extract from a Letter to a Classmate. — School-Teaching. — 
Study of Divinity. — " Approbated " to Preach. — Visit to 
the South. — Preaching in Various Places. 

We get a few brief glimpses of Emerson 
during the years following his graduation. He 
writes in 1823 to a classmate who had gone from 
Harvard to Andover : — 

" I am delighted to hear there is such a profound 
studying of German and Hebrew, Parkhurst and 
Jahn, and such other names as the memory aches to 
think of, on foot at Andover. Meantime, Unitarian- 
ism will not hide her honors ; as many hard names 
are taken, and as much theological mischief is planned, 
at Cambridge as at Andover. By the time this gen- 
eration gets upon the stage, if the controversy will 
not have ceased, it will run such a tide that we shall 
hardly be able to speak to one another, and there 
will be a Guelf and Ghibelline quarrel, which cannot 
tell where the differences lie." 

" You can form no conception how much one grov- 
elling in the city needs the excitement and impulse of 
■ i literary example. The sight of broad vellum-bound 



SCHOOL KEEPING. 49 

quartos, the very mention of Greek and German 
names, the glimpse of a dusty, tugging scholar, will 
wake you up to emulation for a month." 

After leaving College, and while studying 
Divinity, Emerson employed a part of his time 
in giving instruction in several places succes- 
sively. 

Emerson's older brother William was teaching 
in Boston, and Ralph Waldo, after graduating, 
joined him in that occupation. In the year 1825 
or 1826, he taught school also in Chelmsford, 
a town of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, a 
part of which helped to constitute the city of 
Lowell. One of his pupils in that school, the 
Honorable Josiah Gardiner Abbott, has favored 
me with the following account of his recollec- 
tions : — 

The school of which Mr. Emerson . had the 
charge was an old-fashioned country " Acad- 
emy." Mr. Emerson was probably studying for 
the ministry while teaching there. Judge Ab- 
bott remembers the impression he made on the 
boys. He was very grave, quiet, and very im- 
pressive in his appearance. There was some- 
thing engaging, almost fascinating, about him ; 
he was never harsh or severe, always perfectly 
self -controlled, never punished except with vrords, 
but exercised complete command over the boys. 
His old pupil recalls the stately, measured way 
4 



50 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

in which, for some offence the little boy had 
committed, he turned on him, saying only these 
two words : " Oh, sad ! " That was enough, for 
he had the faculty of making the boys love him. 
One of his modes of instruction was to give the 
boys a piece of reading to carry home with them, 
— from some book like Plutarch's Lives, — and 
the next day to examine them and find out how 
much they retained from their reading. Judge 
Abbott remembers a peculiar look in his eyes, 
j as if he saw something beyond what seemed to 
/\be in the field of vision. The whole impression 
left on this pupil's mind was such as no other 
teacher had ever produced upon him. 

Mr. Emerson also kept a school for a short 
time at Cambridge, and among his pupils was 
Mr. John Holmes. His impressions seem to be 
very much like those of Judge Abbott. 

My brother speaks of Mr. Emerson thus : — 

" Calm, as not doubting the virtue residing in his 
sceptre. Rather stern in his very infrequent rebukes. 
Not inclined to win boys by a surface amiability, but 
kindly in explanation or advice. Every inch a king 
in his dominion. Looking back, he seems to me 
rather like a captive philosopher set to tending flocks ; 
resigned to his destiny, but not amused with its incon- 
gruities. He once recommended the use of rhyme as 
a cohesive for historical items." 

In 1823, two years after graduating, Emerson 



"OLD-FASHIONED UNITARIANISM." 51 

began studying for the ministry. He studied 
under the direction of Dr. Channing, attending 
some of the lectures in the Divinity School at 
Cambridge, though not enrolled as one of its 
regular students. 

^ The teachings of that day were such as would 
now be called "old-fashioned Unitarianism." 
But no creed can be held to be a finality. From 
Edwards to Mayhew, from Mayhew to Channing, 
from Channing to Emerson, the passage is like 
that which leads from the highest lock of a canal 
to the ocean level. It is impossible for human 
nature to remain permanently shut up in the 
highest lock of Calvinism. If the gates are not 
opened, the mere leakage of belief or unbelief 
will before long fill the next compartment, and 
the freight of doctrine finds itself on the lower 
level of Arminianism, or Pelagianism, or even 
subsides to Arianism. From this level to that 
of Unitarianism the outlet is freer, and the sub- 
sidence more rapid. And from Unitarianism to 

~p Christian Theism, the passage is largely open 
for such as cannot accept the evidence of the 
supernatural in the history of the church. 

There were many shades of belief in the lib- 
eral churches. If De Tocqueville's account of 
Unitarian preaching in Boston at the time of 
his visit is true, the Savoyard Yicar of Eousseau 
would have preached acceptably in some of our 



52 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

pulpits. In fact, the good Vicar might have 
been thought too conservative by some of our 
^ unharnessed theologians. 

At the period when Emerson reached man- 
hood, Unitarianism was the dominating form of 
belief in the more highly educated classes of both 
of the two great New England centres, the town 
of Boston and the University at Cambridge. 
President Kirkland was at the head of the Col- 
lege, Henry Ware was Professor of Theology, 
Andrews Norton of Sacred Literature, followed 
in 1830 by John Grorham Palfrey in the same 
office. James Freeman, Charles Lowell, and 
William Ellery Channing were preaching in 
Boston. I have mentioned already as a simple 
fact of local history, that the more exclusive 
social circles of Boston and Cambridge were 
chiefly connected with the Unitarian or Episco- 
palian churches. A Cambridge graduate of am- 
bition and ability found an opening far from 
undesirable in a worldly point of view, in a pro- 
fession which he was led to choose by higher 
motives. It was in the Unitarian pulpit that 
the brilliant talents of Buckminster and Everett 
had found a noble eminence from which their 
light could shine before men. 

Descended from a long line of ministers, a 
man of spiritual nature, a reader of Plato, of 
Augustine, of Jeremy Taylor, full of hope for 



"APPROBATED TO PREACH." 53 

his fellow-men, and longing to be of use to them, 
conscious, undoubtedly, of a growing power of 
thought, it was natural that Emerson should 
turn from the task of a school-master to the 
higher office of a preacher. It is hard to con- 
ceive of Emerson in either of the other so-called 
learned professions. His devotion to truth for 
its own sake and his feeling about science would 
have kept him out of both those dusty high- 
ways. His brother William had previously be- 
gun the study of Divinity, but found his mind 
beset with doubts and difficulties, and had taken 
to the profession of Law. It is not unlikely that 
Mr. Emerson was more or less exercised with 
the same questionings. He has said, speaking 
of his instructors : "If they had examined me, 
they probably would not have let me preach atk 
all." His eyes had given him trouble, so that 
he had not taken notes of the lectures which he 
heard in the Divinity School, which accounted for 
his being excused from examination. In 1826, 
after three years' study, he was " approbated to 
preach " by the Middlesex Association of Min- 
isters. His health obliging him to seek a south- 
ern climate, he went in the following winter to 
South Carolina and Florida. During this ab- 
sence he preached several times in Charleston 
and other places. On his return from the South 
he preached in New Bedford, in Northampton, 



54 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

in Concord, and in Boston. His attractiveness 
as a preacher, of which we shall have sufficient 
evidence in a following chapter, led to his being 
invited to share the duties of a much esteemed 
and honored city clergyman, and the next posi- 
tion in which we find him is that of a settled 
minister in Boston. 



CHAPTER III. 

1828-1833. Me. 25-30. 

Settled as Colleague of Eev. Henry Ware. — Married to Ellen 
Louisa Tucker. — Sermon at the Ordination of Rev. H. B. 
Goodwin. — His Pastoral and Other Labors. — Emerson 
and Father Taylor. — Death of Mrs. Emerson. — Differ- 
ence of Opinion with some of his Parishioners. — Sermon 
Explaining his Views. — Resignation of his Pastorate. 

On the 11th of March, 1829, Emerson was 
ordained as colleague with the Reverend Henry 
Ware, Minister of the Second Church in Boston. 
In September of the same year he was married 
to Miss Ellen Louisa Tucker. The resignation 
of his colleague soon after his settlement threw 
all the pastoral duties upon the young minister, 
who seems to have performed them diligently 
and acceptably. Mr. Conway gives the follow- 
ing brief account of his labors, and tells in the 
same connection a story of Father Taylor too 
good not to be repeated : — 

" Emerson took an active interest in the public 
affairs of Boston. He was on its School Board, and 
was chosen chaplain of the State Senate. He invited 
the anti-slavery lecturers into his church, and helped 
philanthropists of other denominations in their work. 



56 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

Father Taylor [the Methodist preacher to the sail- 
ors], to whom Dickens gave an English fame, found 
in him his most important supporter when establish- 
ing the Seaman's Mission in Boston. This was told 
me by Father Taylor himself in his old age. I hap- 
pened to be in his company once, when he spoke 
rather sternly about my leaving the Methodist Church ; 
but when I spoke of the part Emerson had in it, he 
softened at once, and spoke with emotion of his great 
friend. I have no doubt that if the good Father of 
Boston Seamen was proud of any personal thing, it 
was of the excellent answer he is said to have given 
to some Methodists who objected to his friendship for 
Emerson. Being a Unitarian, they insisted that he 
must go to " — [the place which a divine of Charles the 
Second's day said it was not good manners to mention 
in church]. — "'It does look so,' said Father Taylor 
4 but I am sure of one thing : if Emerson goes to 
— [that place] — " ' he will change the climate there, 
and emigration will set that way.' " 

In 1830, Emerson took part in the services at 
the ordination of the Reverend H. B. Goodwin 
as Dr. Ripley's colleague. His address on giving 
the right hand of fellowship was printed, but 
is not included among his collected works. 

The fair prospects with which Emerson began 
his life as a settled minister were too soon dark- 
ened. In February, 1832, the wife of his youth, 
who had been for some time in failing health, 
died of consumption. 



> ?5 



SERMON ON THE COMMUNION. ' 57 

He had become troubled with doubts respect- 
ing a portion of bis duties, and it was not in bis 
nature to conceal these doubts from bis people. 
On the 9th of September, 1832, he preached a 
sermon on the Lord's Supper, in which he an- 
nounced unreservedly his conscientious scruples 
against administering that ordinance, and the 
grounds upon which those scruples were founded. 
This discourse, as his only printed sermon, and 
as one which heralded a movement in New Eng- 
land theology which has never stopped from * 
that day to this, deserves some special notice. 
The sermon is in no sense " Emersonian " except 
in its directness, its sweet temper, and outspoken 
honesty. He argues from his comparison of 
texts in a perfectly sober, old-fashioned way, as 
his ancestor Peter Bulkeley might have done. 
It happened to that worthy forefather of Emer- 
son that upon his " pressing a piece of Charity 
disagreeable to the will of the Hiding Elder, 
there was occasioned an unhappy Discord in the 
Church of Concord ; which yet was at last healed, 
by their calling in the help of a Council and the . 
Riding Elder's Abdication." So says Cotton 
Mather. Whether zeal had grown cooler or 
charity grown warmer in Emerson's days we need 
not try to determine. The sermon was only a 
more formal declaration of views respecting the 
Lord's Supper, which he had previously made 



58 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

known in a conference with some of the most 
active members of his church. As a commit- 
tee of the parish reported resolutions radically 
differing from his opinion on the subject, he 
preached this sermon and at the same time re- 
signed his office. There was no " discord," there 
was no need of a " council." Nothing could be 
more friendly, more truly Christian, than the 
manner in which Mr. Emerson expressed himself 
in this parting discourse. All the kindness of 
his nature warms it throughout. He details the 
differences of opinion which, have existed in the 
church with regard to the ordinance. He then 
argues from the language of the Evangelists that 
it was not intended to be a permanent institu- 
tion. He takes up the statement of Paul in the 
Epistle to the Corinthians, which he thinks, all 
things considered, ought not to alter our opinion 
derived from the Evangelists. He does not 
think that we are to rely upon the opinions and 
practices of the primitive church. If that church 
believed the institution to be permanent, their 
belief does not settle the question for us. On 
every other subject, succeeding times have 
learned to form a judgment more in accordance 
with the spirit of Christianity than was the prac- 
tice of the early ages. 

" But, it is said, ' Admit that the rite was not de- 
signed to be perpetual.' What harm doth it ? " 



SERMON ON THE COMMUNION. 59 

He proceeds to give reasons which show it to 
be inexpedient to continue the observance of the 
rite. It was treating that as authoritative which, 
as he believed that he had shown from Scrip- 
ture, was not so. It confused the idea of God 
by transferring the worship of Him to Christ.,- S 
Christ is the Mediator only as the instructor of 
man. In the least petition to God " the soul 
stands alone with God, and Jesus is no more 
present to your mind than your brother or child." 
Again : — 

" The use of the elements, however suitable to the 
people and the modes of thought in the East, where 
it originated, is foreign and unsuited to affect us. 
The day of formal religion is past, and we are to seek 
our well-being in the formation of the soul. The 
Jewish was a religion of forms ; it was all body, it 
had no life, and the Almighty God was pleased to 
qualify and send forth a man to teach men that they 
must serve him with the heart ; that only that life 
was religious which was thoroughly good ; that sacri- 
fice was smoke and forms w r ere shadows. This man 
lived and died true to that purpose ; and with his 
blessed word and life before us, Christians must con- 
tend that it is a matter of vital importance, — re- 
ally a duty to commemorate him by a certain form, 
whether that form be acceptable to their understand- 
ing or not. Is not this to make vain the gift of God ? 
Is not this to turn back the hand on the dial ? " 



60 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

To these objections he adds the practical con- 
sideration that it brings those who do not par- 
take of the communion service into an unfavor- 
able relation with those who do. 

The beautiful spirit of the man shows itself in 
all its noble sincerity in these words at the close 
of his argument : — 

" Having said this, I have said all. I have no hos- 
tility to this institution ; I am only stating my want 
of sympathy with it. Neither should I ever have 
obtruded this opinion upon other people, had I not 
been called by my office to administer it. That is 
the end of my opposition, that I am not interested 
in it. I am content that it stand to the end of the 
world if it please men and please Heaven, and I 
shall rejoice in all the good it produces." 

He then announces that, as it is the prevailing 
opinion and feeling in our religious community 
that it is a part of a pastor's duties to administer 
this rite, he is about to resign the office which 
had been confided to him. 

This is the only sermon of Mr. Emerson's 
ever published. It was impossible to hear or to 
read it without honoring the preacher for his 
truthfulness, and recognizing the force of his 
statement and reasoning. It was equally impos- 
sible that he could continue his ministrations 
over a congregation which held to the ordinance 



RESIGNATION OF PASTORATE. 61 

he wished to give up entirely. And thus it was, 
that with the most friendly feelings on both 
sides, Mr Emerson left the pulpit of the Second 
Church and found himself obliged to make a be- 
ginning in a new career. 



CHAPTER IV. 

1833-1838. iET. 30-35. 

§ 1. Visit to Europe. — On his Return preaches in Different 
Places. — Emerson in the Pulpit. — At Newton. — Fixes 
his Residence at Concord. — The Old Manse. — Lectures 
in Boston. — Lectures on Michael Angelo and on Milton 
published in the " North American Review." — Beginning 
of the Correspondence with Carlyle. — Letters to the Rev. 
James Freeman Clarke. — Republication of " Sartor Re- 
sartus." 

§ 2. Emerson's Second Marriage. — His New Residence in 
Concord. — Historical Address. — Course of Ten Lectures 
on English Literature delivered in Boston. — The Concord 
Battle Hymn. — Preaching in Concord and East Lexington. 
— Accounts of his Preaching by Several Hearers. — A 
Course of Lectures on the Nature and Ends of History. — 
Address on War. — Death of Edward Bliss Emerson. — 
Death of Charles Chauncy Emerson. 

§3. Publication of "Nature." — Outline of this Essay. — Its 
Reception. — Address before the Phi Beta Kappa Society. 

§ 1. In the year 1833 Mr. Emerson visited 
Europe for the first time. A great change had 
come over his life, and he needed the relief 
which a corresponding change of outward cir- 
cumstances might afford him. A brief account 
of this visit is prefixed to the volume entitled 
"English Trails." He took- a short tour, in 
which he visited Sicily, Italy, and France, and. 



FIRST VISIT TO EUROPE. 63 

crossing from Boulogne, landed at the Tower 
Stairs in London. He finds nothing in his Diary 
to publish concerning visits to places. But he 
saw a number of distinguished persons, of whom 
he gives pleasant accounts, so singularly differ- 
ent in tone from the rough caricatures in which 
Carlyle vented his spleen and caprice, that one 
marvels how the two men could have talked ten 
minutes together, or would wonder, had not one 
been as imperturbable as the other was explosive. 
Horatio Greenough and Walter Savage Landor 
are the chief persons he speaks of as having met 
upon the Continent. Of these he reports vari- 
ous opinions as delivered in conversation. He 
mentions incidentally that he visited Professor 
Amici, who showed him his microscopes " mag- 
nifying (it was said) two thousand diameters." 
Emerson hardly knew his privilege ; he may 
have been the first American to look through 
an immersion lens with the famous Modena pro- 
fessor. Mr. Emerson says that his narrow and 
desultory reading had inspired him with the 
wish to see the faces of three or four writers, 
Coleridge, Wordsworth, Landor, De Quincey, 
Carlyle. His accounts of his interviews with 
these distinguished persons are too condensed to 
admit of further abbreviation. Goethe and 
Scott, whom he would have liked to look upon, 
were dead ; Wellington he saw at Westminster 



64 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

Abbey, at the funeral of Wilberforce. His im- 
pressions of each of the distinguished persons 
whom he visited should be looked at in the light 
of the general remark which follows : — 

" The young scholar fancies it happiness enough to 
live with people who can give an inside to the world ; 
without reflecting that they are prisoners, too, of 
their own thought, and cannot apply themselves to 
yours. The conditions of literary success are ajinost 
destructive of the best social power, as they do not 
have that frolic liberty which .only can encounter a 
companion on the best terms. It is probable you left 
some obscure comrade at a tavern, or in the farms, 
with right mother-wit, and equality to life, when you 
crossed sea and land to play bo-peep with celebrated 
scribes. I have, however, found writers superior to 
their books, and I cling to my first belief that a 
strong head will dispose fast enough of these impedi- 
ments, and give one the satisfaction of reality, the 
sense of having been met, and a larger horizon." 

Emerson carried a letter of introduction to a 
gentleman in Edinburgh, who, being unable to 
pay him all the desired attention, handed him 
over to Mr. Alexander Ireland, who has given a 
most interesting account of him as he appeared 
during that first visit to Europe. Mr. Ireland's 
presentation of Emerson as he heard him in the 
Scotch pulpit shows that he was not less im- 
pressive and attractive before an audience of 



EMERSON IN THE PULPIT. 65 

strangers than among his own countrymen and 
countrywomen : — ■ 

/ "On Sunday, the 18th of August, 1833, I heard 
him deliver a discourse in the Unitarian Chapel, Young 
Street, Edinburgh, and I remember distinctly the 
effect which it produced on his hearers. It is almost 
needless to say that nothing like it had ever been 
heard by them before, and many of them did not 
know what to make of it. The originality of his 
thoughts, the consummate beauty of the language in 
which they were clothed, the calm dignity of his bear- 
ing, the absence of all oratorical effort, and the singu- 
lar directness and simplicity of his manner, free from 
the least shadow of dogmatic assumption, made a 
deep impression on me. Not long before this I had 
listened to a wonderful sermon by Dr. Chalmers, 
whose force, and energy, and vehement, but rather 
turgid eloquence carried, for the moment, all before 
them, — his audience becoming like clay in the hands 
of the potter. But I must confess that the pregnant 
thoughts and serene self-possession of the young Bos- 
ton minister had a greater charm for me than all the 
rhetorical splendors of Chalmers. His voice was the 
sweetest, the most winning and penetrating of any 
I ever heard ; nothing like it have I listened to since. 

6 That music in our hearts we bore 
Long after it was heard no more.' " 

Mr. George Gilfillan speaks of " the solemnity 
'of his manner, and the earnest thought pervad- 
ing his discourse." 



66 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

As to the effect of his preaching on his Amer- 
ican audiences, I find the following evidence 
in Mr. Cooke's diligently gathered collections. 
Mr. Sanborn says : — 

" His pulpit eloquence was singularly attractive, 
though by no means equally so to all persons. In 
1829, before the two friends had met, Bronson Alcott 
heard him preach in Dr. Channing's church on ' The 
Universality of the Moral Sentiment,' and was struck, 
as he said, with the youth of the preacher, the beauty 
of his elocution and the direct and sincere manner 
in which he addressed his hearers." 

Mr. Charles Congdon, of New Bedford, well 
known as a popular writer, gives the following 
account of Emerson's preaching in his " Rem- 
iniscences." I borrow the quotation from Mr. 
Conway : — 

" One day there came into our pulpit the most 
gracious of mortals, with a face all benignity, who 
gave out the first hymn and made the first prayer as 
an angel might have read and prayed. Our choir 
was ' a pretty good one, but its best was coarse and 
discordant after Emerson's voice. I remember of 
the sermon only that it had an indefinite charm of 
simplicity and wisdom, with occasional illustrations 
from nature, which were about the most delicate and 
dainty things of the kind which I had ever heard. I 
could understand them, if not the fresh philosophical 
novelties of the discourse." 



EMERSON IN THE PULPIT.— AT NEWTON. 67 

Everywhere Emerson seems to have pleased 
his audiences. The Reverend Dr. Morison, 
formerly the much respected Unitarian minister 
of New Bedford, writes to me as follows : — 

"After Dr. Dewey left New Bedford, Mr. Emer- 
son preached there several months, greatly to the sat- 
isfaction and delight of those who heard him. The 
Society would have been glad to settle him as their 
minister, and he would have accepted a call, had it 
not been for some difference of opinion, I think, in 
regard to the communion service. Judge Warren, 
who was particularly his friend, and had at that time 
a leading influence in the parish, with all his admira- 
tion for Mr. Emerson, did not think he could well be 
the pastor of a Christian church, and so the matter 
was settled between him and his friend, without any 
action by the Society." 

All this shows well enough that his preaching 
was eminently acceptable. But every one who 
has heard him lecture can form an idea of what 
he must have been as a preacher. In fact, we 
have all listened, probably, to many a passage 
from old sermons of his, — for he tells us he 
borrowed from those old sermons for his lec- 
tures, — without ever thinking of the pulpit 
from which they were first heard. 

Among the stray glimpses we get of Emerson 
between the time when he quitted the pulpit of his 
church and that when he came before the public 



68 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

as a lecturer is this, which I owe to the kindness 
of Hon. Alexander H. Eice. In 1832 or 1833, 
probably the latter year, he, then a boy, with 
another boy, Thomas R. Gould, afterwards well 
known as a sculptor, being at the Episcopal 
church in Newton, found that Mr. Emerson was 
sitting in the pew behind them. Gould knew 
Mr. Emerson, and introduced young Rice to him, 
and they walked down the street together. As 
they went along, Emerson burst into a rhapsody 
over the Psalms of David, the sublimity of 
thought, and the poetic beauty of expression of 
which they are full, and spoke also with enthu- 
siasm of the Te Deum as that grand old hymn 
which had come down through the ages, voicing 
the praises of generation after generation. 

When they parted at the house of young 
Rice's father, Emerson invited the boys to come 
and see him at the Allen farm, in the afternoon. 
They came to a piece of woods, and, as they en- 
tered it, took their hats off:. " Boys," said Em- 
erson, "here we recognize the presence of the 
Universal Spirit. The breeze says to us in its 
own language, How d' ye do ? How d' ye do ? 
and we have already taken our hats off and are 
answering it with our own How d' ye do ? How 
d' ye do ? And all the waving branches of the 
trees, and all the flowers, and the field of corn 
yonder, and the singing brook, and the insect 



REMOVAL TO CONCORD. 69 

and the bird, — every living tiling and things 
we call inanimate feel the same divine universal 
impulse while they join with us, and we with 
them, in the greeting which is the salutation of 
the Universal Spirit." ^ 

We perceive the same feeling which pervades 
many of Emerson's earlier Essays and much of 
his verse, in these long-treasured reminiscences 
of the poetical improvisation with which the two 
boys were thus unexpectedly favored. Governor 
Rice continues : — 

/ " You know what a captivating charm there always 
was in Emerson's presence, but I can never tell you 
how this line of thought then impressed a country 
boy. I do not remember anything about the remain- 
der of that walk, nor of the after-incidents of that 
day, — I only remember that I went home wondering 
about that mystical dream of the Universal Spirit, 
and about what manner of man he was under whose 
influence I had for the first time come. . . . 

" The interview left impressions that led me into 
new channels of thought which have been a life-long 
pleasure to me, and, I doubt not, taught me somewhat 
how to distinguish between mere theological dogma 
and genuine religion in the soul."^ 

; In the summer of 1834 Emerson became a 
resident of Concord, Massachusetts, the town of 
his forefathers, and the place destined to be his 
home for life. He first lived with his venerable 



70 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

connection, Dr. Ripley, in the dwelling made 
famous by Hawthorne as the " Old Manse. " It 
is an old-fashioned gambrel-roofed house, stand- 
ing close to the scene of the Fight on the banks 
of the river. It was built for the Reverend Wil- 
liam Emerson, his grandfather. In one of the 
rooms of this house Emerson wrote " Nature," 
and in the same room, some years later, Haw- 
thorne wrote " Mosses from an Old Manse." 

The place in which Emerson passed the 
greater part of his life well deserves a special 
notice. Concord might sit for its portrait as an 
ideal New England town. If wanting in the 
variety of surface which many other towns can 
boast of, it has at least a vision of the distant 
summits of Monadnock and Wachusett. It has 
fine old woods, and noble elms to give dignity 
to its open spaces. Beautiful ponds, as they 
modestly call themselves, — one of which, Wal- 
den, is as well known in our literature as Win- 
dermere in that of Old England, — lie quietly 
in their clean basins. And through the green 
meadows runs, or rather lounges, a gentle, un- 
salted stream, like an English river, licking its 
grassy margin with a sort of bovine placidity 
and contentment. This is the Musketaquid, or 
Meadow River, which, after being joined by the 
more restless Assabet, still keeps its temper and 
flows peacefully along by and through other 



CONCORD. 71 

towns, to lose itself in the broad Merrimac. The 
names of these rivers tell us that Concord has an 
Indian history, and there is evidence that it was 
a favorite residence of the race which preceded 
our own. The native tribes knew as well as the 
white settlers where were pleasant streams and 
sweet springs, where corn grew tall in the mead- 
ows and fish bred fast in the unpolluted waters. 
The place thus favored by nature can show a 
record worthy of its physical attractions. Its 
settlement under the lead of Emerson's ancestor, 
Peter Bulkeley, was effected in the midst of 
many difficulties, which the enterprise and self- 
sacrifice of that noble leader were successful in 
overcoming. On the banks of the Musketaquid 
was fired the first fatal shot of the " rebel " 
farmers. Emerson appeals to the Records of the 
town for two hundred years as illustrating the 
working of our American institutions and the 
character of the men of Concord : — 

" If the good counsel prevailed, the sneaking coun- 
sel did not fail to be suggested ; freedom and virtue, 
if they triumphed, triumphed in a fair field. And 
so be it an everlasting testimony for them, and so 
much ground of assurance of man's capacity for self- 
government." 

What names that plain New England town 
reckons in the roll of its inhabitants ! Stout 
Major Buttrick and his fellow-soldiers in the war 



72 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

of Independence, and their worthy successors in 
the war of Freedom ; lawyers and statesmen like 
Samuel Hoar and his descendants ; ministers 
like Peter Bulkeley,- Daniel Bliss, and William 
Emerson ; and men of genius such as the ideal- 
ist and poet whose inspiration has kindled so 
many souls ; as the romancer who has given an 
atmosphere to the hard outlines of our stern 
New England; as that unique individual, half 
college-graduate and half Algonquin, the Robin- 
son Crusoe of Walden Pond, who carried out a 
school-boy whim to its full proportions, and told 
the story of Nature in undress as only one who 
had hidden in her bedroom could have told it. 
I need not lengthen the catalogue by speaking 
of the living, or mentioning the women whose 
names have added to its distinction. It has long 
been an intellectual centre such as no other 
country town of our own land, if of any other, 
could boast. Its groves, its streams, its houses, 
are haunted by undying memories, and its hill- 
sides and hollows are made holy by the dust that 
is covered by their turf. 

Such was the place which the advent of Em- 
erson made the Delphi of New England and the 
resort of many pilgrims from far-off regions. 
/ On his return from Europe in the winter 
of 1833-4, Mr. Emerson began to appear be- 
fore the public as a lecturer. His first sub- 



EMERSON AS A LECTURER. 73 

jects, " Water," and the " Eelation of Man to 
the Globe," were hardly such as we should have 
expected from a scholar who had but a limited 
acquaintance with physical and physiological 
science. They were probably chosen as of a 
popular character, easily treated in such a way 
as to be intelligible and entertaining, and thus 
answering the purpose of introducing him pleas- 
antly to the new career he was contemplating. 
These lectures are not included in his published 
works, nor were they ever published, so far as I 
know. He gave three lectures during the same 
winter, relating the experiences of his recent tour 
in Europe. Having made himself at home on the 
platform, he ventured upon subjects more congen- 
ial to his taste and habits of thought than some 
of those earlier topics. In 1834 he lectured on 
Michael Angelo, Milton, Luther, George Fox, 
and Edmund Burke. The first two of these lec- 
tures, though not included in his collected works, 
may be found in the " North American Review " 
for 1837 and 1838. The germ of many of the 
thoughts which he has expanded in prose and 
verse may be found in these Essays. 

The Cosmos of the Ancient Greeks, the piu 
neV u?io, " The Many in One," appear in the 
Essay on Michael Angelo as they also appear in 
his " Nature." The last thought takes wings to 
itself and rises in the little poem entitled " Each 



74 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

and All." The " Rhodora," another brief poem, 
finds itself foreshadowed in the inquiry, " What 
is Beauty ? " and its answer, " This great Whole 
the understanding cannot embrace. Beauty 
mav be felt. It may be produced. But it can- 
not be denned." And throughout this Essay 
/the feeling that truth and beauty and virtue are 

) \ one, and that Nature is the symbol which typi- 
fies it to the soul, is the inspiring sentiment. 
JSfoscitur a sociis applies as well to a man's 
dead as to his living companions. A young 
friend of mine in his college days wrote an es- 
say on Plato. When he mentioned his subject 
to Mr. Emerson, he got the caution, long remem- 
bered, " When you strike at a King, you must 

> kill him." He himself knew well with what 
kings of thought to measure his own intelligence. 
What was grandest, loftiest, purest, in human 
character chiefly interested him. He rarely 
meddles with what is petty or ignoble. Like his 
"Humble Bee," the " yellow -breeched philoso- 
pher," whom he speaks of as 

" Wiser far than human seer," 
and says of him, 

" Aught unsavory or unclean 
Hath my insect never seen," 

he goes through the world where coarser minds 
find so much that is repulsive to dwell upon, 



EARLY LECTURES. 75 

" Seeing only what is fair, 
Sipping only what is sweet." 

Why Emerson selected Michael Angelo as the 
subject of one of his earliest lectures is shown 
clearly enough by the last sentence as printed in 
the Essay. 

" He was not a citizen of any country ; he he- 
longed to the human race ; he was a brother and a 
friend to all who acknowledged the beauty that beams 
in universal nature, and who seek by labor and self- 
denial to approach its source in perfect goodness." 

Consciously or unconsciously men describe (^ 
themselves in the characters they draw. One 
must have the mordant in his own personality 
or he will not take the color of his subject. He 
may force himself to picture that which he dis- 
likes or even detests ; but when he loves the 
character he delineates, it is his own, in some 
measure, at least, or one of which he feels that 
its possibilities and tendencies belong to himself. 
Let us try Emerson by this test in his " Essay 
on Milton : " — 

"It is the prerogative of this great man to stand 
at this hour foremost of all men in literary history, 
and so (shall we not say ?) of all men, in the power 
to inspire. Virtue goes out of him into others." . . . 
" He is identified in the mind with all select and holy 
images, with the supreme interests of the human 
race." — " Better than any other he has discharged 



? 



76 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

the office of every great man, namely, to raise the 
idea of Man in the minds of his contemporaries and 
of posterity, — to draw after nature a life of man, 
exhibiting such a composition of grace, of strength, 
and of virtue as poet had not described nor hero 
lived. Human nature in these ages is indebted to him 
for its best portrait. Many philosophers in England, 
France, and Germany, have formally dedicated their 
study to this problem ; and we think it impossible to 
recall one in those countries who communicates the 
same vibration of hope, of self-reverence, of piety, of 
delight in beauty, which the name of Milton awakes." 

Emerson had the same lofty aim as Milton, 
" To raise the idea of man ; " he had " the power 
to inspire " in a preeminent degree. If ever a 
man communicated those vibrations he speaks of 
as characteristic of Milton, it was Emerson. In 
elevation, purity, nobility of nature, he is worthy 
to stand with the great poet and patriot, who 
beoran like him as a school-master, and ended as 
the teacher in a school-house which had for its 
walls the horizons of every region where English 
is spoken. The similarity of their characters 
might be followed by the curious into their for- 
tunes. Both were turned away from the clerical 
office by a revolt of conscience against the be- 
liefs required of them ; both lost very dear ob- 
jects of affection in early manhood, and mourned 
for them in tender and mellifluous threnodies. 



EMERSON'S ESSAY ON MILTON. 77 

It would be easy to trace many parallelisms in 
their prose and poetry, but to have dared t,o 
name any man whom we have known in our 
common life with the seraphic singer of. the Na- 
tivity and of Paradise is a tribute Vnich seems 
to savor of audacity. It is hard to conceive of 
Emerson as " an expert kWordsman " like Mil- 
ton. It is impossible to think of him as an 
abusive controversialist as Milton was in his 
controversy with Salmasius. But though Emer- 
son never betrayed it to the offence of others, he 
must hHve been conscious, like Milton, of " a 
certain niceness of nature, an honest haughti- 
ness," which was as a shield about his inner na- 
ture. Charles Emerson, the younger brother, 
who was of the same type, expresses the feeling 
in his college essay on Friendship, where it is 
all summed up in the line he quotes : — 

" The hand of Douglas is his own." 

It must be that in writing this Essay on Milton 
Emerson felt that he was listening in his own 
soul to whiskers that seemed like echoes from 
that of the divine singer. 

My friend, the Rev. James Freeman Clarke, 
a life-long friend of Emerson, who understood 
him from the first, and was himself a great part 
in the movement of which Emerson, more than 



78 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

any other man, was the leader, has kindly al- 
lowed me to make use of the following letters : — 

fJO REV. JAMES F. CLARKE, LOUISVILLE, KY. 

" -. Plymouth, Mass., March 12, 1834. 

My dear Sife*. — As the day approaches when 
Mr. Lewis should leav~e Boston, I seize a few mo- 
ments in a friendly houst? in. the first of towns, to 
thank you heartily for your kindness in lending me 
the valued manuscripts which I return. 'The transla- 
tions excited me much, and who can estimated the value 
of a good thought ? I trust I am to learn much more 
from you hereafter of your German studies, and 
much I hope of your own. You asked in your note 
concerning Carlyle. My recollections oif him are 
most pleasant, and I feel great confidence \n his char- 
acter. He understands and recognizes Hs mission. 
He is perfectly simple and affectionate in jiis manner, 
and frank, as he can well afford to be, in his com- 
munications. He expressed some impatience of his 
total solitude, and talked of Paris as <&> residence. 
I told him I hoped not ; for I should always remem- 
ber him with respect, meditating in |he mountains 
of Nithsdale. He was cheered, as he pught to be, by 
learning that his papers were read with interest by 
young men unknown to him in this continent ; and 
when I specified a piece which had attracted warm 
commendation from the New Jerusalem people here? 
his wife said that is always the way ; whatever he has 
writ that he thinks has fallen dead, he hears of two 
or three years afterward. — He has many, many to- 



EMERSON TO JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE. 79 

kens o£ Goethe's regard, miniatures, medals, and many- 
letters. If you should go to Scotland one day, you 
would gratify him, yourself, and me, by your visit to 
Craigenputtock, in the parish of Dunscore, near Dum- 
fries. He told me he had a book which he thought 
to publish, but was in the purpose of dividing into a 
series of articles for " Fraser's Magazine." I there- 
fore subscribed for that book, which he calls the 
" Mud Magazine," but have seen nothing of his work- 
manship in the two last numbers. The mail is going, 
so I shall finish my letter another time. 

Your obliged friend and servant, 

R. Waldo Emerson. 

Concord, Mass., November 25, 1834. 
Mv dear Sir, — Miss Peabocly has kindly sent 
me your manuscript piece on Goethe and Carlyle. I 
have read it with great pleasure and a feeling of 
gratitude, at the same time with a serious regret that 
it was not published. I have forgotten what reason 
you assigned for not printing it ; I cannot think of 
any sufficient one. Is it too late now ? Why not 
change its form a little and annex to it some account 
of Carlyle's later pieces, to wit : " Diderot," and 
" Sartor Resartus." The last is complete, and he 
has sent it to me in a stitched pamphlet. Whilst 
I see its vices (relatively to the reading public) of 
style, I cannot but esteem it a noble philosophical 
poem, reflecting the ideas, institutions, men of this 
very hour. And it seems to me that it has so much 
wit and other secondary graces as must strike a class 
who would not care for its primary merit, that of 



80 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

being a sincere exhortation to seekers of truth. If 
you still retain your interest in his genius (as I see 
not how you can avoid, having understood it and co- 
operated with it so truly), you will be glad to know 
that he values his American readers very highly ; that 
he does not defend this offensive style of his, but 
calls it questionable tentative ; that he is trying other 
modes, and is about publishing a historical piece called 
" The Diamond Necklace," as a part of a great work 
which he meditates on the subject of the French Rev- 
olution. He says it is part of his creed that history 
is poetry, could we tell it right. He adds, moreover, 
in a letter I have recently received from him, that 
it has been an odd dream that he might end in the 
western woods. Shall we not bid him come, and be 
Poet and Teacher of a most scattered flock wanting 
a shepherd ? Or, as I sometimes think, would it not 
be a new and worse chagrin to become acquainted 
with the extreme deadness of our community to 
spiritual influences of the higher kind ? Have you 
read Sampson Reed's " Growth of the Mind " ? I 
rejoice to be contemporary with that man, and can- 
not wholly despair of the society in which he lives ; 
there must be some oxygen yet, and La Fayette is 
only just dead. 

Your friend, R. Waldo Emerson. 

It occurs to me that 't is unfit to send any white 
paper so far as to your house, so you shall have a 
sentence from Carlyle's letter. 

[This may be found in Carlyle's first letter, dated 12th 
August, 1834.] 



"SARTOR RESARTUS." 81 

Dr. Le Baron Russell, an intimate friend of 
Emerson for the greater part of his life, gives 
me some particulars with reference to the pub- 
lication of " Sartor Resartus," which I will re- 
peat in his own words : — 

" It was just before the time of which I am speak- 
ing [that of Emerson's marriage] that the i Sartor 
Resartus ' appeared in ' Fraser.' Emerson lent the 
numbers, or the collected sheets of * Fraser,' to Miss 
Jackson, and we all had the reading of them. The 
excitement which the book caused among young per- 
sons interested in the literature of the day at that 
time you probably remember. I was quite carried 
away by it, and so anxious to own a copy, that I de- 
termined to publish an American edition. I con- 
sulted James Munroe & Co. on the subject. Munroe 
advised me to obtain a subscription to a sufficient 
number of copies to secure the cost of the publication. 
This, with the aid of some friends, particularly of 
my classmate, William Silsbee, I readily succeeded in 
doing. When this was accomplished, I wrote to Em- 
erson, who up to this time had taken no part in the 
enterprise, asking him to write a preface. (This is 
the Preface which appears in the American edition, 
James Munroe & Co., 1836. It was omitted in the 
third American from the second London edition, by 
the same publishers, 1840.) Before the first edi- 
tion appeared, and after the subscription had been 
secured, Munroe & Co. offered to assume the whole 
responsibility of the publication, and to this I assented. 
6 



82 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

" This American edition of 1836 was the first ap- 
pearance of the ' Sartor ' in either country, as a dis- 
tinct edition. Some copies of the sheets from ' Fra- 
ser,' it appears, were stitched together and sent to a 
few persons, but Carlyle could find no English pub- 
lisher willing to take the responsibility of printing the 
book. This shows, I think, how much more interest 
was taken in Carlyle's writings in this country than 
in England." 

On the 14th of May, 1834, Emerson wrote to 
Carlyle the first letter of that correspondence 
which has since been given to the world under 
the careful editorship of Mr. Charles Norton. 
This correspondence lasted from the date men- 
tioned to the 2d of April, 1872, when Carlyle 
wrote his last letter to Emerson. The two writ- 
ers reveal themselves as being in strong sympa- 
thy with each other, in spite of a radical differ- 
ence of temperament and entirely opposite views 
of life. The hatred of unreality was uppermost 
with Carlyle ; the love of what is real and gen- 
uine with Emerson. Those old moralists, the 
weeping and the laughing philosophers, find their 
counterparts in every thinking community. Car- 
lyle did not weep, but he scolded ; Emerson did 
not laugh, but in his gravest moments there was 
a smile waiting for the cloud to pass from his 
forehead. The Duet they chanted was a Mise- 
rere with a Te Deum for its Antiphon ; a De 



EMERSON'S SECOND MARRIAGE. 83 

Profundis answered by a Sursum Corda. " The 
ground of my existence is black as death," says 
Carlyle. " Come and live with me a year," says 
Emerson, " and if you do not like New Eng- 
land well enough to stay, one of these years 
(when the c History ' has passed its ten editions, 
and been translated into as many languages) I 
will come and dwell with you." 

§ 2. In September, 1835, Emerson was mar- 
ried to Miss Lydia Jackson, of Plymouth, Mas- 
sachusetts. The wedding took place in the fine 
old mansion known as the Winslow House, Dr. 
Le Baron Russell and his sister standing up with 
the bridegroom and his bride. After their mar- 
riage, Mr. and Mrs. Emerson went to reside in 
the house in which he passed the rest of his life, 
and in which Mrs. Emerson and their daughter 
still reside. This is the " plain, square, wooden 
house," with horse-chestnut trees in the front 
yard, and evergreens around it, which has been 
so often described and figured. It is without 
pretensions, but not without an air of quiet dig- 
nity. A full and well-illustrated account of it 
and its arrangements and surroundings is given 
in " Poets' Homes," by Arthur Gilman and 
others, published by D. Lothrop & Company in 
1879. 

On the 12th of September, 1835, Emerson 



84 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

delivered an " Historical Discourse, at Concord, 
on the Second Centennial Anniversary of the In- 
corporation of the Town." There is no "mys- 
ticism," no " transcendentalism " in this plain, 
straightforward Address. The facts are collected 
and related with the patience and sobriety which 
became the writer as one of the Dryasdusts of 
our very diligent, very useful, very matter-of-fact, 
and for the most part judiciously unimaginative 
Massachusetts Historical Society. It looks un- 
like anything else Emerson ever wrote, in being 
provided with abundant foot-notes and an appen- 
dix. One would almost as soon have expected 
to see Emerson equipped with a musket and a 
knapsack as to find a discourse of his clogged 
with annotations, and trailing a supplement after 
it. Oracles are brief and final in their utter- 
ances. Delphi and Cumse are not expected to 
explain what they say. 

It is the habit of our New England towns to 
celebrate their own worthies and their own deeds 
on occasions like this, with more or less of rhe- 
torical gratitude and self-felicitation. The dis- 
courses delivered on these occasions are com- 
monly worth reading, for there was never a 
clearing made in the forest that did not let in 
the light on heroes and heroines. Concord is on 
the whole the most interesting of all the inland 
towns of New England. Emerson has told its 



CONCORD "HISTORICAL ADDRESS." 85 

story in as painstaking, faithful a way as if he 
had been by nature an annalist. But with this 
fidelity, we find also those bold generalizations 
and sharp picturesque touches which reveal the 
poetic philosopher. 

" I have read with care," he says, " the town rec- 
ords themselves. They exhibit a pleasing picture of 
a community almost exclusively agricultural, where 
no man has much time for words, in his search after 
things ; of a community of great simplicity of man- 
ners, and of a manifest love of justice. I find our 
annals marked with a uniform good sense. — The 
tone of the record rises with the dignity of the event. 
These soiled and musty books are luminous and elec- 
tric within. The old town clerks did not spell very 
correctly, but they contrive to make intelligible the 
will of a free and just community." ..." The mat- 
ters there debated (in town meetings) are such as to 
invite very small consideration. The ill-spelled pages 
of the town records contain the result. I shall be 
excused for confessing that I have set a value upon 
any symptom of meanness and private pique which I 
have met with in these antique books, as proof that 
justice was done ; that if the results of our history 
are approved as wise and good, it was yet a free 
strife ; if the good counsel prevailed, the sneaking 
counsel did not fail to be suggested ; freedom and 
virtue, if they triumphed, triumphed in a fair field. 
And so be it an everlasting testimony for them, and 
so much ground of assurance of man's capacity for 
self-government." 



86 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

There was nothing in this Address which the 
plainest of Concord's citizens could not read un- 
derstandingly and with pleasure. In fact Mr. 
Emerson himself, besides being a poet and a phi- 
losopher, was also a plain Concord citizen. His 
son tells me that he was a faithful attendant upon 
town meetings, and, though he never spoke, was 
an interested and careful listener to the debates 
on town matters. That respect for "mother- 
wit " and all the wholesome human qualities 
which reveals itself all through his writings was 
bred from this kind of intercourse with men of 
sense who had no pretensions to learning, and in 
whom, for that very reason, the native qualities 
came out with less disguise in their expression. 
He was surrounded by men who ran to extremes 
in their idiosyncrasies = Alcott in speculations, 
which often led him into the fourth dimension 
of mental space ; Hawthorne, who brooded him- 
self into a dream -peopled solitude; Thoreau, 
the nullifier of civilization, who insisted on nib- 
bling his asparagus at the wrong end, to say 
nothing of idolaters and echoes. He kept his 
balance among them all. It would be hard to 
find a more candid and sober record of the result 
of self-government in a small community than 
is contained in this simple discourse, patient in 
detail, large in treatment, more effective than 
any unsupported generalities about the natural 



THE CONCORD HYMN. 87 

rights of man, which amount to very little unless 
men earn the right of asserting them by attend- 
ing fairly to their natural duties. So admirably 
is the working of a town government, as it goes 
on in a well-disposed community, displayed in 
the history of Concord's two hundred years of 
village life, that one of its wisest citizens had 
portions of the address printed for distribution, 
as an illustration of the American principle of 
self-government. 

After settling in Concord, Emerson delivered 
courses of Lectures in Boston during several suc- 
cessive winters ; in 1835, ten Lectures on Eng- 
lish Literature ; in 1836, twelve Lectures on the 
Philosophy of History; in 1837, ten Lectures 
on Human Culture. Some of these lectures may 
have appeared in print under their original 
titles ; all of them probably contributed to the 
Essays and Discourses which we find in his 
published volumes. 

On the 19th of April, 1836, a meeting was 
held to celebrate the completion of the monu- 
ment raised in commemoration of the Concord 
Eight. For this occasion Emerson wrote the 
hymn made ever memorable by the lines : — 

Here once the embattled farmers stood, 
And fired the shot heard round the world. 

The last line of this hymn quickens the heart- 
beats of every American, and the whole hymn 
is admirable in thought and expression. 



88 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

Until the autumn of 1838, Emerson preached 
twice on Sundays to the church at East Lexing- 
ton, which desired him to become its pastor. 
Mr. Cooke says that when a lady of the society 
was asked why they did not settle a friend of 
Emerson's whom he had urged them to invite 
to their pulpit, she replied: "We are a very 
simple people, and can understand no one but 
Mr. Emerson." He said of himself : " My pul- 
pit is the Lyceum platform." Knowing that he 
made his Sermons contribute to his Lectures, 
we need not mourn over their not being re- 
ported. 

In March, 1837, Emerson delivered in Boston 
a Lecture on War, afterwards published in Miss 
Peabody's "iEsthetic Papers." He recognizes 
war as one of the temporary necessities of a de- 
veloping civilization, to disappear with the ad- 
vance of mankind : — 

" At a certain stage of his progress the man fights, 
if he be of a sound body and mind. At a certain 
high stage he makes no offensive demonstration, but 
is alert to repel injury, and of an unconquerable 
heart. At a still higher stage he comes into the re- 
gion of holiness ; passion has passed away from him ; 
his warlike nature is all converted into an active me- 
dicinal principle ; he sacrifices himself, and accepts 
with alacrity wearisome tasks of denial and charity ; 
but being attacked, he bears it, and turns the other 



DEATH OF EMERSON'S BROTHERS, 89 

cheek, as one engaged, throughout his being, no longer 
to the service of an individual, bat to the common 
good of all men." 

In 1834 Emerson's brother Edward died, as 
already mentioned, in the West India island 
where he had gone for his health. In his letter 
to Carlyle, of November 12th of the same year, 
Emerson says : " Your letter, which I received 
last week, made a bright light in a solitary and 
saddened place. I had quite recently received 
the news of the death of a brother in the island 
of Porto Rico, whose loss to me will be a life- 
long sorrow." It was of him that Emerson 
wrote the lines " In Memoriam," in which he 
says, — 

" There is no record left on earth 
Save on tablets of the heart, 
Of the rich, inherent worth, 
Of the grace that on him shone 
Of eloquent lips, of joyful wit ; 
He could not frame a word unfit, 
An act unworthy to be done." 

Another bereavement was too soon to be re- 
corded. On the 7th of October, 1835, he says 
in a letter to Carlyle : — 

" I was very glad to hear of the brother you describe, 
for I have one too, and know what it is to have pres- 
ence in two places. Charles Chauncy Emerson is a 
lawyer now settled in this town, and, as I believe, no 



90 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

better Lord Hamlet was ever. He is our Doctor on 
all questions of taste, manners, or action. And one 
of the pure pleasures I promise myself in the months 
to come is to make you two gentlemen know each 
other." 

Alas for human hopes and prospects ! In 
less than a year from the date of that letter, on 
the 17th of September, 1836, he writes to Car- 
lyle : — 

"Your last letter, dated in April, found me a 
mourner, as did your first. I have lost out of this 
world my brother Charles, of whom I have spoken to 
you, — the friend and companion of many years, the 
inmate of my house, a man of a beautiful genius, born 
to speak well, and whose conversation for these last 
years has treated every grave question of humanity, 
and has been my daily bread. I have put so much 
dependence on his gifts, that we made but one man 
together ; for I needed never to do what he could do 
by noble nature, much better than I. He was to have 
been married in this month, and at the time of his 
sickness and sudden death, I was adding apartments 
to my house for his permanent accommodation. I 
wish that you could have known liim. At twenty- 
seven years the best life is only preparation. He 
built his foundation so large that it needed the full 
age of man to make evident the plan and proportions 
of his character. He postponed always a particular 
to a final and absolute success, so that his life was a 
silent appeal to the great and generous. But some 
time I shall see you and speak of him." 



"NATURE." 91 

§ 3. In the year 1836 there was published in 
Boston a little book of less than a hundred very 
small pages, entitled " Nature." It bore no 
name on its title-page, but was at once attrib- 
uted to its real author, Ralph Waldo Emerson. 

The Emersonian adept will pardon me for bur- 
dening this beautiful Essay with a commentary 
which is worse than superfluous for him. For 
it has proved for many, — I will not say a pons 
asinorum, — but a very narrow bridge, which it 
made their heads swim to attempt crossing, and 
yet they must cross it, or one domain of Emer- 
son's intellect will not be reached. 

It differed in some respects from anything he 
had hitherto written. It talked a strange sort of 
philosophy in the language of poetry. Begin- 
ning simply enough, it took more and more the 
character of a rhapsody, until, as if lifted off his 
feet by the deepened and stronger undercurrent 
of his thought, the writer dropped his personality 
and repeated the words which " a certain poet 
sang" to him. 

This little book met with a very unemotional 
reception. Its style was peculiar, — almost as 
unlike that of his Essays as that of Carlyle*s 
" Sartor Resartus " was unlike the style of his 
" Life of Schiller." It was vague, mystic, incom- 
prehensible, to most of those who call themselves 
common-sense people. Some of its expressions 



92 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

lent themselves easily to travesty and ridicule. 
But the laugh could not be very loud or very 
long, since it took twelve years, as Mr. Higgin- 
son tells us, to sell five hundred copies. It was 
a good deal like Keats's 

" doubtful tale from fairy-land 
Hard for the non-elect to understand." 

The same experience had been gone through by 
Wordsworth. 

" Whatever is too original," says De Quincey, 
" will be hated at the first. It must slowly mould 
a public for itself ; and the resistance of the early 
thoughtless judgments must be overcome by a coun- 
ter-resistance to itself, in a better audience slowly 
mustering against the first. Forty and seven years 
it is since William Wordsworth first appeared as 
an author. Twenty of these years he was the scoff 
of the world, and his poetry a by-word of scorn. 
Since then, and more than once, senates have rung 
with acclamations to the echo of his name." 

No writer is more deeply imbued with the 
spirit of Wordsworth than Emerson, as we can- 
not fail to see in turning the pages of "Nature," 
his first thoroughly characteristic Essay. There 
is the same thought in the Preface to " The Ex- 
cursion " that we find in the Introduction to 
" Nature." 

" The foregoing generations beheld God and nature 
face to face ; we through their eyes. Why should 



"NATURE." 93 

not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe ? 
Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of )<< 
insight and not of tradition, and a religion by reve- 
lation to us, and not the history of theirs ? " 

"Paradise and groves 
Elysian, Fortunate Fields — like those of old 
Sought in the Atlantic Main, why should they be 
A history only of departed things, 
Or a mere fiction of what never was ? " 

" Nature " is a reflective prose poem. It is 
divided into eight chapters, which might almost 
as well have been called cantos. 

Never before had Mr. Emerson given free ut- 
terance to the passion with which the aspects of 
nature inspired him. He had recently for the 
first time been at once master of himself and in 
free communion with all the planetary influences 
above, beneath, around him. The air of the 
country intoxicated him. There are sentences in 
" Nature " which are as exalted as the language 
of one who is just coming to himself after being 
etherized. Some of these expressions sounded 
to a considerable part of his early readers like 
the vagaries of delirium. Yet underlying these 
excited outbursts there was a general tone of 
serenity which reassured the anxious. The gust 
passed over, the ripples smoothed themselves, 
and the stars shone again in quiet reflection. 

After a passionate outbreak, in which he sees 



94 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

all, is nothing, loses himself in nature, in Uni- 
versal Being, becomes " part or particle of God," 
he considers briefly, in the chapter entitled 
Commodity, the ministry of nature to the senses. 
A few picturesque glimpses in pleasing and poet- 
ical phrases, with a touch of archaism, and remi- 
niscences of Hamlet and Jeremy Taylor, " the 
Shakspeare of divines," as he has called him, 
are what we find in this chapter on Commodity, 
or natural conveniences. 

But " a nobler want of man is served by Na- 
ture, namely, the love of Beauty" which is his 
next subject. There are some touches of de- 
scription here, vivid, high-colored, not so much 
pictures as hints and impressions for pictures. 

Many of the thoughts which run through all 
his prose and poetry may be found here. Anal- 
ogy is seen everywhere in the works of Nature. 
" What is common to them all, — that perf ect- 
ness and harmony, is beauty." — " Nothing is 
quite beautiful alone : nothing but is beautiful 
in the whole." — " No reason can be asked or 
given why the soul seeks beauty." How easily 
these same ideas took on the robe of verse may 
be seen in the Poems, " Each and All," and 
" The Rhodora." A good deal of his philoso- 
phy comes out in these concluding sentences of 
the chapter : — 

" Beauty in its largest and profoundest sense is 



"NATURE" 95 

one expression for the universe ; God in the all-fair. 
Truth and goodness and beauty are but different 
faces of the same All. But beauty in Nature is 
not ultimate. It is the herald of inward and eter- 
nal beauty, and is not alone a solid and satisfactory 
good. It must therefore stand as a part and not as 
yet the highest expression of the final cause of Na- 
ture." 

In the " Rhodora " the flower is made to an- 
swer that 

" Beauty is its own excuse for being." 

In this Essay the beauty of the flower is not 
enough, but it must excuse itself for being, 
mainly as the symbol of something higher and 
deeper than itself. 

He passes next to a consideration of Language. 
Words are signs of natural facts, particular ma- 
terial facts are symbols of particular spiritual 
facts, and Nature is the symbol of spirit. With- 
out going very profoundly into the subject, he 
gives some hints as to the mode in which lan- 
guages are formed, — whence words are derived, 
how they become transformed and worn ouO< 
But they come at first fresh from Nature. 

"A man conversing in earnest, if he watch his 
intellectual processes, will find that always a mate- 
rial image, more or less luminous, arises in his mind, 
contemporaneous with every thought, which furnishes 



96 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

the vestment of the thought. Hence good writing 
and brilliant discourse are perpetual allegories." 

From this he argues that country life is a 
great advantage to a powerful mind, inasmuch as 
it furnishes a greater number of these material 
images. They cannot be summoned at will, but 
they present themselves when great exigencies 
call for them. 

" The poet, the orator, bred in the woods, whose 
senses have been nourished by their fair and appeas- 
ing changes, year after year, without design and with- 
/ out heed, — shall not lose their lesson altogether, in 

/■ I. the roar of cities or the broil of politics. Long here- 
after, amidst agitations and terror in national coun- 
cils, — in the hour of revolution, — these solemn 
images shall reappear in their morning lustre, as fit 
symbols and words of the thought which the passing 
events shall awaken. At the call of a noble senti- 
ment, again the woods wave, the pines murmur, the 
river rolls and shines, and the cattle low upon the 
mountains, as he saw and heard them in his infancy. 
/ And with these forms the spells of persuasion, the 

' keys of power, are put into his hands." 

It is doing no wrong to this very eloquent and 
beautiful passage to say that it reminds us of 
certain lines in one of the best known poems of 
Wordsworth : — 

" These beauteous forms, 
Through a long absence, have not been to me 



"NATURE." 97 

As is a landscape to a blind man's eye ; 
But oft, in lonely rooms, and mid the din 
Of towns and cities, I have owed to them 
In hours of weariness sensations sweet 
Felt in the blood and felt along the heart." 

It is needless to quote the whole passage. The 
poetry of Wordsworth may have suggested the 
prose of Emerson, but the prose loses nothing 
by the comparison. 

In Discipline, which is his next subject, he 
treats of the influence of Nature in educating the 
intellect, the moral sense, and the will. Man is 
enlarged and the universe lessened and brought 
within his grasp, because 

" Time and space relations vanish as laws are 
known." — " The moral law lies at the centre of Na- 
ture and radiates to the circumference." — " All things 
with which we deal preach to us. What is a farm 
but a mute gospel ? " — " From the child's successive 
possession of his several senses up to the hour when 
he sayeth, ' Thy will be done ! ' he is learning the 
secret that he can reduce under his will, not only par- 
ticular events, but great classes, nay, the whole series 
of events, and so conform all facts to his character." 

The unity in variety which meets us every- 
where is again referred to. He alludes to the 
ministry of our friendships to our education. 
When a friend has done for our education in 
the way of filling our minds with sweet and solid 



98 RALPH WALDO EMERSON-. 

wisdom " it is a sign to us that his office is 
closing, and he is commonly withdrawn from 
our sight in a short time." This thought was 
probably suggested by the death of his brother 
Charles, which occurred a few months before 
" Nature " was published. He had already 
spoken in the first chapter of this little book as 
if from some recent experience of his own, doubt- 
less the same bereavement. " To a man labor- 
ing under calamity, the heat of his own fire hath 
sadness in it. Then there is a kind of contempt 
of the landscape felt by him who has just lost 
by death a dear friend. The sky is less grand 
as it shuts down over less worth in the popula- 
tion." This was the first effect of the loss ; but 
after a time he recognizes a superintending 
power which orders events for us in wisdom 
which we could not see at first. 

The chapter on Idealism must be read by 
all who believe themselves capable of abstract 
thought, if they would not fall under the judg- 
ment of Turgot, which Emerson quotes : " He 
that has never doubted the existence of matter 
may be assured he has no aptitude for meta- 
physical inquiries." The most essential state- 
ment is this : — 

" It is a sufficient account of that Appearance we 
call the World, that God will teach a human mind, 
and so makes it the receiver of a certain number of 



"NATURE." 99 

congruent sensations, which we call sun and moon, 
man and woman, house and trade. In my utter im- 
potence to test the authenticity of the report of my 
senses, to know whether the impressions they make 
on me correspond with outlying objects, what dif- 
ference does it make, whether Orion is up there in 
Heaven, or some god paints the image in the firma- 
ment of the Soul ? " 

We need not follow the thought through the 
argument from illusions, like that when we look 
at the shore from a moving ship, and others 
which cheat the senses by false appearances. 

The poet animates Nature with his own 
thoughts, perceives the affinities between Nature 
and the soul, with Beauty as his main end. The 
philosopher pursues Truth, but, " not less than 
the poet, postpones the apparent order and rela- 
tion of things to the empire of thought." Re- 
ligion and ethics agree with all lower culture in 
degrading Nature and suggesting its dependence 
on Spirit. " The devotee flouts Nature." — 
" Plotinus was ashamed of his body." — " Michael 
Angelo said of external beauty, ' it is the frail 
and weary weed, in which God dresses the soul, 
which He has called into time.' " Emerson would 
not undervalue Nature as looked at through the 
senses and " the unrenewed understanding." " I 
have no hostility to Nature," he says, "but a 
child's love of it. I expand and live in the warm 



100 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

day like corn and melons." — But, " seen in the 
light of thought, the world always is phenom- 
enal ; and virtue subordinates it to the mind. 
Idealism sees the world in God," — as one vast 
picture, which God paints on the instant eternity, 
for the contemplation of the soul. 

The unimaginative reader is likely to find 
himself off soundings in the next chapter, which 
has for its title Spirit. 

Idealism only denies the existence of matter ; 
it does not satisfy the demands of the spirit. 
" It leaves God out of me." — Of these three 
questions, What is matter ? Whence is it ? 
Where to ? The ideal theory answers the first 
only. The reply is that matter is a phenome- 
non, not a substance. 

" But when we come to inquire Whence is matter ? 
and Whereto ? many truths arise to us out of the re- 
cesses of consciousness. We learn that the highest 
is present to the soul of man, that the dread universal 
essence, which is not wisdom, or love, or beauty, or 
power, but all in one, and each entirely, is that for 
which all things exist, and that by which they are ; 
that spirit creates ; that behind nature, throughout 
nature, spirit is present ; that spirit is one and not 
compound ; that spirit does not act upon us from 
without, that is, in space and time, but spiritually, or 
through ourselves." — " As a plant upon the earth, 
so a man rests upon the bosom of God ; he is nour- 



"NATURE." 101 

ished by unfailing fountains, and draws, at his need, 
inexhaustible power." 

Man may have access to the entire mind of the 
Creator, himself become a " creator in the fin- 
ite." 

"As we degenerate, the contrast between us and 
our house is more evident. We are as much stran- 
gers in nature as we are aliens from God. We do not i r 
understand the notes of birds. The fox and the deer 
run away from us; the bear and the tiger rend us." 

All this has an Old Testament sound as of a 
lost Paradise. In the next chapter he dreams 
of Paradise regained. 

This next and last chapter is entitled Pros- 
pects. He begins with a bold claim for the prov- 
ince of intuition as against induction, underval- 
uing the " half sight of science " as against the 
" untaught sallies of the spirit," the surmises 
and vaticinations of the mind, — the " imperfect 
theories, and sentences which contain glimpses 
of truth." In a word, he would have us leave 
the laboratory and its crucibles for the sibyl's 
cave and its tripod. We can all — or most of 
us, certainly — recognize something of truth, s/ 
much of imagination, and more of danger in 
speculations of this sort. They belong to vis- 
ionaries and to poets. Emerson feels distinctly 
enough that he is getting into the realm of 



102 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

poetry. He quotes five beautiful verses from 
George Herbert's " Poem on Man." Presently 
lie is himself taken off his feet into the air of 
song, and finishes his Essay with " some tradi- 
tions of man and nature which a certain poet 
sang to me." — "A man is a god in ruins." — 
" Man is the dwarf of himself. Once he was 
permeated and dissolved by spirit. He filled 
nature with his overflowing currents. Out from 
him sprang the sun and moon ; from man the " 
sun, from woman the moon." — But he no longer 
fills the mere shell he had made for himself ; 
" he is shrunk to a drop." Still something of ele- 
mental power remains to him. "It is instinct." 
Such teachings he got from his " poet." It is 
a kind of New England Genesis in place of the 
Old Testament one. We read in the Sermon 
on the Mount : " Be ye therefore perfect as your 
Father in Heaven is perfect." The discourse 
which comes to us from the Trimount oracle 
commands us, " Build, therefore, your own world. 
As fast as you conform your life to the pure 
idea in your mind, that will unfold its great pro- 
portions." The seer of Patmos foretells a heav- 
enly Jerusalem, of which he says, " There shall 
in no wise enter into it anything which defileth." 
The sage of Concord foresees a new heaven on 
earth. " A correspondent revolution in things 
will attend the influx of the spirit. So fast will 



"NATURE." 103 

disagreeable appearances, swine, spiders, snakes, 
pests, mad-houses, prisons, enemies, vanish ; they 
are temporary and shall be no more seen." 

It may be remembered that Calvin, in his 
Commentary on the New Testament, stopped 
when he came to the book of the " Revelation.'' 
He found it full of difficulties which he did not 
care to encounter. Yet, considered only as a 
poem, the vision of St. John is full of noble im- 
agery and wonderful beauty. " Nature " is .the 
Book of Revelation of our Saint Radulphus. It 
has its obscurities, its extravagances, but as a 
poem it is noble and inspiring. It was objected 
to on the score of its pantheistic character, as 
Wordsworth's " Lines composed near Tintern 
Abbey " had been long before. But here and 
there it found devout readers who were capti- 
vated by its spiritual elevation and great poet- 
ical beauty, among them one who wrote of it in 
the " Democratic Review " in terms of enthusi- 
astic admiration. 

Mr. Bowen, the Professor of Natural Theol- 
ogy and Moral Philosophy in Harvard Univer- 
sity, treated this singular semi - philosophical, 
semi-poetical little book in a long article in the 
" Christian Examiner," headed " Transcenden- 
talism," and published in the January number 
for 1837. The acute and learned Professor 



104 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

meant to deal fairly with his subject. But if 
one has ever seen a sagacious pointer making the 
acquaintance of a box-tortoise, he will have an 
idea of the relations between the reviewer and 
the reviewed as they appear in this article. The 
professor turns the book over and over, — in- 
spects it from plastron to carapace, so to speak, 
and looks for openings everywhere, sometimes 
successfully, sometimes in vain. He finds good 
writing and sound philosophy, passages of great 
force and beauty of expression, marred by ob- 
scurity, under assumptions and faults of style. 
He was not, any more than the rest of us, accli- 
mated to the Emersonian atmosphere, and after 
some not unjust or unkind comments with which 
many readers will heartily agree, confesses his 
bewilderment, saying : — 

" On reviewing what we have already said of this 
singular work, the criticism seems to be couched in 
contradictory terms ; we can only allege in excuse the 
fact that the book is a contradiction in itself." 

Carlyle says in his letter of February 13, 
1837: — 

" Your little azure-colored l Nature ' gave me true 
satisfaction. I read it, and then lent it about to all 
my acquaintances that had a sense for such things ; 
from whom a similar verdict always came back. You 
say it is the first chapter of something greater. I 
call it rather the Foundation and Ground-plan on 



"NATURE." 105 

which you may build whatsoever of great and true has 
been given you to build. It is the true Apocalypse, 
this when the ' Open Secret ' becomes revealed to a 
man. I rejoice much in the glad serenity of soul 
with which you look out on this wondrous Dwelling- 
place of yours and mine, — with an ear for the 
Ewigen Melodien, which pipe in the winds round us, 
and utter themselves forth in all sounds and sights 
and things ; not to be written down by gamut-ma- 
chinery ; but which all right writing is a kind of at- 
tempt to write down." 

The first edition of " Nature " had prefixed 
to it the following words from Plotinus : " Na- 
ture is but an image or imitation of wisdom, the 
last thing of the soul ; Nature being a thing 
which doth only do, but not know." This is 
omitted in after editions, and in its place we 
read : — 

" A subtle chain of countless rings 
The next unto the farthest brings ; 
The eye reads omens where it goes, 
And speaks all languages the rose ; 
And striving to be man, the worm 
Mounts through all the spires of form." 

The copy of " Nature " from which I take these 
lines, his own, of course, like so many others 
which he prefixed to his different Essays, was 
printed in the year 1849, ten years before the 
publication of Darwin's " Origin of Species," 
twenty years and more before the publication of 



106 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

" The Descent of Man." But the " Yestiges of 
Creation," published in 1844, had already pop- 
ularized the resuscitated theories of Lamarck. 
It seems as if Emerson had a warning from the 
poetic instinct which, when it does not precede 
the movement of the scientific intellect, is the 
first to catch the hint of its discoveries. There 
is nothing more audacious in the poet's concep- 
tion of the worm looking up towards humanity, 
than the naturalist's theory that the progenitor 
of the human race was an acephalous mollusk. 
" I will not be sworn," says Benedick, " but 
love may transform me to an oyster." For 
" love " read science. 

Unity in variety, "il piunell uno" symbolism 
of Nature and its teachings, generation of phe- 
nomena, — appearances, — from spirit, to which 
they correspond and which they obey ; evolution 
of the best and elimination of the worst as the 
law of being ; all this and much more may be 
found in the poetic utterances of: this slender 
Essay. It fell like an aerolite, unasked for, un- 
accounted for, unexpected, almost unwelcome, — 
a stumbling-block to be got out of the well-trod- 
den highway of New England scholastic intelli- 
gence. But here and there it found a reader to 
whom it was, to borrow, with slight changes, its 

own quotation, — 

" The golden key 
Which opes the palace of eternity," 



"THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR." 107 

inasmuch as it carried upon its face the highest 
certificate of truth, because it animated them 
to create a new world for themselves through 
the purification of their own souls. 

Next to "Nature" in the series of his collected 
publications comes " The American Scholar. An 
Oration delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa 
Society at Cambridge, August 31, 1837." 

The Society known by these three letters, long 
a mystery to the uninitiated, but which, filled out 
and interpreted, signify that philosophy is the 
guide of life, is one of long standing, the annual 
meetings of which have called forth the best ef- 
forts of many distinguished scholars and think- 
ers. Rarely has any one of the annual addresses 
been listened to with such profound attention 
and interest. Mr. Lowell says of it, that its de- 
livery " was an event without any former par- 
allel in our literary annals, a scene to be always 
treasured in the memory for its picturesqueness 
and its inspiration. What crowded and breath- 
less aisles, what windows clustering with eager 
heads, what enthusiasm of approval, what grim 
silence of foregone dissent ! " 

Mr. Cooke says truly of this oration, that 
nearly all his leading ideas found expression in it. 
This was to be expected in an address delivered 
before such an audience. Every real thinker's 



108 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

world of thought has its centre in a few for- 
mulae, about which they revolve as the planets 
circle round the sun which cast them off. But 
those who lost themselves now and then in the 
pages of " Nature " will find their way clearly 
enough through those of " The American Schol- 
ar." It is a plea for generous culture; for the 
development of all the faculties, many of which 
tend to become atrophied by the exclusive pur- 
suit of single objects of thought. It begins with 
a note like a trumpet call. 

" Thus far," he says, " our holiday has been simply 
a friendly sign of the survival of the love of letters 
amongst a people too busy to give to letters any more. 
As such it is precious as the sign of an indestructible 
instinct. Perhaps the time is already come when it 
ought to be, and will be, something else ; when the 
sluggard intellect of this continent will look from un- 
der its iron lids and fill the postponed expectations of 
the world with something better than the exertions of 
mechanical skill. Our day of dependence, our long 
apprenticeship to the learning of other lands, draws 
to a close. The millions that around us are rushing 
into life cannot always be fed on the sere remains of 
foreign harvests. Events, actions arise, that must be 
sung, that will sing themselves. Who can doubt that 
poetry will revive and lead in a new age, as the star 
in the constellation Harp, which now flames in our 
zenith, astronomers announce shall one day be the 
pole-star for a thousand years ? " 



"THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR:* 109 

Emerson finds his text in the old fable which 
tells that Man, as he was in the beginning, was 
divided into men, as the hand was divided into 
fingers, the better to answer the end of his being. 
The fable covers the doctrine that there is One 
Man ; present to individuals only in a partial 
manner ; and that we must take the whole of so- 
ciety to find the whole man. Unfortunately the 
unit has been too minutely subdivided, and many 
faculties are practically lost for want of use. j ( 
" The state of society is one in which the mem- 
bers have suffered amputation from the trunk, 
and strut about so many walking monsters, — 
a good finger, a neck, a stomach, an elbow, but 
never a man. . . . Man is thus metamorphosed 
into a thing, into many things. . . . The priest 
becomes a form ; the attorney a statute book ; 
the mechanic a machine; the sailor a rope of 
the ship." 

This complaint is by no means a new one. 
Scaliger says, as quoted by omnivorous old Bur- 
ton : " Nequaquam, nos homines sumus sed par- 
tes hominis" The old illustration of this used 
to be found in pin-making. It took twenty dif- 
ferent workmen to make a pin, beginning with 
drawing the wire and ending with sticking in the 
paper. Each expert, skilled in one small per- 
formance only, was reduced to a minute fraction 
of a fraction of humanity. If the complaint 



110 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

was legitimate in Scaliger's time, it was better 
founded half a century ago when Mr. Emerson 
found cause for it. It has still more serious 
significance to-day, when in every profession, in 
every branch of human knowledge, special ac- 
quirements, special skill have greatly tended to 
limit the range of men's thoughts and working 
faculties. 

" In this distribution of functions the scholar is the 
. delegated intellect. In the right state he is Man 
^/ thinking. In the degenerate state, when the victim 
of society, he tends to become a mere thinker, or still 
worse, the parrot of other men's thinking. In this 
view of him, as Man thinking, the theory of his office 
is continued. Him Nature solicits with all her placid, 
all her monitory pictures ; him the past instructs ; 
him the future invites." 

Emerson proceeds to describe and illustrate 
the influences of nature upon the mind, return- 
ing to the strain of thought with which his pre- 
vious Essay has made us familiar. He next con- 
siders the influence of the past, and especially of 
books as the best type of that influence. " Books 
are the best of things well used ; abused among 
the worst." It is hard to distil what is already 
a quintessence without loss of what is just as 
good as the product of our labor. A sentence 
or two may serve to give an impression of the 
epigrammatic wisdom of his counsel. 



" THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR." HI 

" Each age must write its own books, or, rather, 
each generation for the next succeeding. The books 
of an older period will not fit this." 

When a book has gained a certain hold on 
the mind, it is liable to become an object of idol- 
atrous regard. 

" Instantly the book becomes noxious : the guide is 
a tyrant. The sluggish and perverted mind of the 
multitude, slow to open to the incursions of reason, 
having once so opened, having received this book, 
stands upon it and makes an outcry if it is dispar- 
aged. Colleges are built on it. Books are written 
on it by thinkers, not by Man thinking ; by men of 
talent, that is, who start wrong, who set out from ac- 
cepted dogmas, not from their own sight of princi- 
ple. Meek young men grow up in libraries, believing 
it their duty to accept the views which Cicero, which 
Locke, which Bacon have given ; forgetful that Cicero, 
Locke, and Bacon were only young men hi libraries 
when they wrote these books. — One must be an in- 
ventor to read well. As the proverb says, ' He that 
would bring home the wealth of the Indies must 
carry out the wealth of the Indies.' — When the mind 
is braced by labor and invention, the page of what- 
ever book we read becomes luminous with manifold 
allusion. Every sentence is doubly significant, and 
the sense of our author is as broad as the world." 

It is not enough that the scholar should be a 
student of nature and of books. He must take 
a part in the affairs of the world about him. 



^ 



112 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

" Action is with the scholar subordinate, but it is 
essential. Without it he is not yet man. Without 
it thought can never ripen into truth. — The true 
scholar grudges every opportunity of action past by, 
as a loss of power. It is the raw material out of 
which the intellect moulds her splendid products. A 
strange process, too, this by which experience is con- 
verted into thought as a mulberry leaf is converted 
into satin. The manufacture goes forward at all 
hours." 

Emerson does not use the words " unconscious 
cerebration," but these last words describe the 
process in an unmistakable way. The beautiful 
paragraph in which he pictures the transforma- 
tion, the transfiguration of experience, closes 
with a sentence so thoroughly characteristic, so 
Emersonially Emersonian, that I fear some read- 
ers who thought they were his disciples when 
they came to it went back and walked no more 
with him, at least through the pages of this dis- 
course. The reader shall have the preceding 
sentence to prepare him for the one referred to. 

" There is no fact, no event in our private history, 
which shall not, sooner or later, lose its adhesive, inert 
form, and astonish us by soaring from our body into 
the empyrean. 

" Cradle and infancy, school and playground, the 
fear of boys, and dogs, and ferules, the love of little 
maids and berries, and many another fact that once 



" THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR." H3 

filled the whole sky, are gone already ; friend and 
relative, professions and party, town and country, K 
nation and world must also soar and sing." 

Having spoken of the education of the scholar 
by nature, by books, by action, he speaks of the 
scholar's duties. " They may all," he says, " be 
comprised in self -trust." We have to remember 
that the self he means is the highest self, that 
consciousness which he looks upon as open to 
the influx of the divine essence from which it 
came, and towards which all its upward tenden- 
cies lead, always aspiring, never resting ; as he 
sings in " The Sphinx " : — 

" The heavens that now draw him 

With sweetness untold, , 

Once found, — for new heavens \ 

He spurneth the old." 

" First one, then another, we drain all cisterns, and 
waxing greater by all these supplies, we crave a bet- 
ter and more abundant food. The man has never 
lived that can feed us ever. The human mind can- 
not be enshrined in a person who shall set a barrier 
on any one side of this unbounded, unboundable em- 
pire. It is one central fire, which, flaming now out of 
the lips of Etna, lightens the Capes of Sicily, and now 
out of the throat of Vesuvius, illuminates the towers 
and vineyards of Naples. It is one light which beams 
out of a thousand stars. It is one soul which ani- 
mates all men." 
8 



? 



114 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

And so he comes to the special application of 
the principles he has laid down to the American 
scholar of to-day. He does not spare his cen- 
sure ; he is full of noble trust and manly cour- 
age. Very refreshing it is to remember in this 
day of specialists, when the walking fraction of 
humanity he speaks of would hardly include a 
whole finger, but rather confine itself to the sin- 
gle joint of the finger, such words as these : — 

" The scholar is that man who must take up into 
himself all the ability of the time, all the contributions 
of the past, all the hopes of the future. He must be 
ajuniyersity of knowledges. . . . We have listened too 
long to the courtly muses of Europe. The spirit of 
the American freeman is already suspected to be timid, 
imitative, tame. — The scholar is decent, indolent, com- 
plaisant. — The mind of this country, taught to aim at 
low objects, eats upon itself. There is no work for 
any but the decorous and the complaisant." 

The young men of promise are discouraged 
and disgusted. 

" What is the remedy ? They did not yet see, and 
thousands of young men as hopeful now crowding to 
the barriers for the career do not yet see, that if the 
single man plant himself indomitably on his instincts, 
and there abide, the huge world will come round to 
him." 

Each man must be a unit, — must yield that 
peculiar fruit which he was created to bear. 



"THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR." 115 

" We will walk on our own feet ; we will work with 
our own hands ; we will speak our own minds. — A 
nation of men will for the first time exist, because 
each believes himself inspired by the Divine Soul 
which also inspires all men." 

This grand Oration was our intellectual Dec- 
laration of Independence. Nothing like it had 
been heard in the halls of Harvard since Sam- 
uel Adams supported the affirmative of the ques- 
tion, " Whether it be lawful to trust the chief 
magistrate, if the commonwealth cannot other- 
wise be preserved." It was easy to find fault with 
an expression here and there. The dignity, not 
to say the formality of an Academic assembly 
was startled by the realism that looked for the 
infinite in " the meal in the firkin ; the milk 
in the pan." They could understand the deep 
thoughts suggested by " the meanest flower that 
blows," but these domestic illustrations had a 
kind of nursery homeliness about them which 
the grave professors and sedate clergymen were 
unused to expect on so stately an occasion. But 
the young men went out from it as if a prophet 
had been proclaiming to them " Thus saith the 
Lord." No listener ever forgot that Address, 
and among all the noble utterances of the speaker 
it may be questioned if one ever contained more 
truth in language more like that of immediate 
inspiration. 



CHAPTEE V. 

1838-1843. ^Et. 35-40. 

§ 1. Divinity School Address. — Correspondence. — Lectures 
on Human Life. — Letters to James Freeman Clarke. — 
Dartmouth College Address : Literary Ethics. — Waterville 
College Address : The Method of Nature. — Other Ad- 
dresses : Man the Reformer. — Lecture on the Times. — 
The Conservative. — The Transcendentalist. — Boston 
" Transcendentalism." — " The Dial." — Brook Farm. 

§ 2. First Series of Essays published. — Contents : History, 
Self -Reliance, Compensation, Spiritual Laws, Love, Friend- 
ship, Prudence, Heroism, The Oversoul, Circles, Intellect, 
Art. — Emerson's Account of his Mode of Life in a Letter 
to Carlyle. — Death of Emerson's Son. — Threnody. 

§ 1. On Sunday evening, July 15, 1838, Em- 
erson delivered an Address before the Senior 
Class in Divinity College, Cambridge, which 
caused a profound sensation in religious circles, 
and led to a controversy, in which Emerson had 
little more than the part of Patroclus when the 
Greeks and Trojans fought over his body. In its 
simplest and broadest statement this discourse 
was a plea for the individual consciousness as 
against all historical creeds, bibles, churches ; 
for the soul as the supreme judge in spiritual 
matters. 

He begins with a beautiful picture which must 



DIVINITY SCHOOL ADDRESS. 117 

be transferred without the change of an expres- 
sion : — 

"In this refulgent Summer, it has been a luxury 
to draw the breath of life. The grass grows, the buds 
burst, the meadow is sj>otted with fire and gold in the 
tint of flowers. The air is full of birds, and sweet 
with the breath of the pine, the balm of Gilead, and 
the new hay. Night brings no gloom to the heart 
with its welcome shade. Through the transparent 
darkness the stars pour their almost spiritual rays. 
Man under them seems a young child, and his huge 
globe a toy. The cool night bathes the world as with 
a river, and prepares his eyes again for the crimson 
dawn." 

How softly the phrases of the gentle icono- 
clast steal upon the ear, and how they must have 
hushed the questioning audience into pleased at- 
tention ! The " Song of Songs, which is Solo- 
mon's," could not have wooed the listener more 
sweetly. " Thy lips drop as the honeycomb : 
honey and milk are under thy tongue, and the 
smell of thy garments is like the smell of Leb- 
anon." And this was the prelude of a discourse 
which, when it came to be printed, fared at the 
hands of many a theologian, who did not think 
himself a bigot, as the roll which Baruch wrote 
with ink from the words of Jeremiah fared at 
the hands of Jehoiakim, the King of Judah. He 
listened while Jehudi read the opening passages. 



118 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

But " when Jehudi had read three or four leaves 
he cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the 
fire that was on the hearth, until all the roll was 
consumed in the fire that was on the hearth." 
Such was probably the fate of many a copy of 
this famous discourse. 

It is reverential, but it is also revolutionary. 
The file-leaders of Unitarianism drew back in 
dismay, and the ill names which had often been 
applied to them were now heard from their own 
lips as befitting this new heresy ; if so mild a re- 
proach as that of heresy belonged to this alarm- 
ing manifesto. And yet, so changed is the whole 
aspect of the theological world since the time 
when that discourse was delivered that it is read 
as calmly to-day as a common " Election Ser- 
mon," if such are ever read at all. A few ex- 
tracts, abstracts, and comments may give the 
reader who has not the Address before him some 
idea of its contents and its tendencies. 

The material universe, which he has just pic- 
tured in its summer beauty, deserves our admi- 
ration. But when the mind opens and reveals 
the laws which govern the world of phenomena, 
it shrinks into a mere fable and illustration of 
this mind. What am I ? What is ? — are ques- 
tions always asked, never fully answered. We 
would study and admire forever. 

But above intellectual curiosity, there is the 



DIVINITY SCHOOL ADDRESS. 119 

sentiment of virtue. Man is born for the good, I 
for the perfect, low as he now lies in evil and 
weakness. "The sentiment of virtue is a rever- 
ence and delight in the presence of certain di- 
vine laws. — These laws refuse to be adequately 
stated. — They elude our persevering thought; 
yet we read them hourly in each other's faces, 
in each other's actions, in our own remorse. — 
The intuition of the moral sentiment is an in- 
sight of the perfection of the laws of the soul. 
These laws execute themselves. — As we are, so 
we associate. The good, by affinity, seek the 
goooTpthe""vile, by affinity, the vile. Thus, of 
their own volition, souls proceed into heaven, 
into hell." 

These facts, Emerson says, have always sug- 
gested to man that the world is the product not 
of manifold power, but of one will, of one mind, 
— that one mind is everywhere active. — " All 
things proceed out of the same spirit, and all 
things conspire with it." While a man seeks 
good ends, nature helps him ; when he seeks 
other ends, his being shrinks, " he becomes less 
and less, a mote, a point, until absolute badness 
is absolute death." — " When he says ' I ought ; ' 
when love warms him ; when he chooses, warned 
from on high, the good and great deed ; then 
deep melodies wander through his soul from Su- 
preme Wisdom." 



120 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

" This sentiment lies at the foundation of society 
and successively creates all forms of worship. — This 
thought dwelled always deepest in the minds of men 
in the devout and contemplative East ; not alone in 
Palestine, where it reached its purest expression, 
but in Egypt, in Persia, in India, in China. Europe 
^has always owed to Oriental genius its divine im- 
pulses. What these holy hards said, all sane men 
found agreeable and true. And the unique impres- 
sion of Jesus upon mankind, whose name is not so 
much written as ploughed into the history of this 
world, is proof of the subtle virtue of this infusion." 

But this truth cannot be received at second 
hand ; it is an intuition. What another an- 
nounces, I must find true in myself, or I must 
reject it. If the word of another is taken in- 
stead of this primary faith, the church, the state, 
art, letters, life, all suffer degradation, — " the 
doctrine of inspiration is lost ; the base doctrine 
( of the majority of voices usurps the place of the 
doctrine of the soul." 

The following extract will show the view that 
he takes of Christianity and its Founder, and 
sufficiently explain the antagonism called forth 
by the discourse : — 

" Jesus Christ belonged to the true race of proph- 
ets. He saw with open eye the mystery of the soul. 
/ Drawn by its severe harmony, ravished with its 
beauty, he lived in it, and had his being there. Alone 



DIVINITY SCHOOL ADDRESS. 121 

in all history he estimated the greatness of man. One < 
man was true to what is in you and me. He saw 
that God incarnates himself in man, and evermore 
goes forth anew to take possession of his World. He 
said, in this jubilee of sublime emotion, 'I am Di- 
vine. Through me God acts ; through me, speaks. C; 
Would you see God, see me ; or see thee, when thou 
also thinkest as I now think.' But what a distortion 
did his doctrine and memory suffer in the same, in the 
next, and the following ages ! There is no doctrine 
of the Reason which will bear to be taught by the 
Understanding. The understanding caught this high 
chant from the poet's lips, and said, in the next age, 
4 This was Jehovah come down out of heaven. I will 
kill you if you say he was a man.' The idioms of 
his language and the figures of his rhetoric have 
usurped the place of his truth ; and churches are not 
built on his principles, but on his tropes. Christianity 
became a Mythus, as the poetic teaching of Greece 
and of Egypt, before. He spoke of Miracles ; for he 
felt that man's life was a miracle, and all that man 
doth, and he knew that this miracle shines as the 
character ascends. But the word Miracle, as pro- 
nounced by Christian churches, gives a false impres- * 
sion ; it is Monster. It is not one with the blowing 
clover and the falling rain." 

He proceeds to point out what he considers the 
great defects of historical Christianity. It has 
exaggerated the personal, the positive, the. rit- 
ual. It has wronged mankind by monopolizing 



122 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

all virtues for the Christian name. It is only 
by his holy thoughts that Jesus serves us. " To 
aim to convert a man by miracles is a profana- 
tion of the soul." The preachers do a wrong to 
Jesus by removing him from our human sympa- 
thies; they should not degrade his life and dia- 
logues by insulation and peculiarity. 

Another defect of the traditional and limited 
way of using the mind of Christ is that the 
Moral Nature — the Law of Laws — is not ex- 
plored as the fountain of the established teach- 
ing in society. "Men have come to speak of 
the revelation as somewhat long ago given and 
done, as if God were dead." — " The soul is 
not preached. The church seems to totter to 
its fall, almost all life extinct. — The stationari- 
ness of religion; the assumption that the age 
of inspiration is past ; that the Bible is closed ; 
the fear of degrading the character of Jesus by 
representing him as a man ; indicate with suffi- 
cient clearness the falsehood of our theology. It 
is the office of a true teacher to show us that 
; God is, not was ; that he speaketh, not spake. 
The true Christianity — a faith like Christ's in 
the infinitude of Man — is lost." 

When Emerson came to what his earlier an- 
cestors would have called the " practical appli- 
cation," some of his young hearers must have 
been startled at the style of his address. 



DIVINITY SCHOOL ADDRESS. 123 

" Yourself a new - born bard of the Holy <^ 
Ghost, cast behind you all conformity, and ac- 
quaint men at first hand with Deity. Look to 
it first and only, that fashion, custom, authority, 
pleasure, and money are nothing to you, — are 
not bandages over your eyes, that you cannot 
see, — but live with the privilege of the immeas- 
urable mind." 

/ Emerson recognizes two inestimable advan- 
tages as the gift of Christianity ; first the Sab- 
bath, — hardly a Christian institution, — and 
secondly the institution of preaching. He spoke 
not only eloquently, but with every evidence of 
deep sincerity and conviction. He had sacrificed 
an enviable position to that inner voice of duty 
which he now proclaimed as the sovereign law 
over all written or spoken words. But he was as- 
sailing the cherished beliefs of those before him, 
and of Christendom generally ; not with hard or 
bitter words, not with sarcasm or levity, rather 
as one who felt himself charged with a message 
from the same divinity who had inspired the,K 
prophets and evangelists of old with whatever 
truth was in their messages. He might be 
wrong, but his words carried the evidence of his 
own serene, unshaken confidence that the spirit V 
of all truth was with him. Some of his audi- 
ence, at least, must have felt the contrast be- 
tween his utterances and the formal discourses 



124 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

they had so long listened to, and said to them- 
selves, " he speaks ' as one having authority, and 
not as the Scribes.' " / 

Such teaching, however, could not be suffered 
to go unchallenged. Its doctrines were repu- 
diated in the " Christian Examiner," the lead- 
ing organ of the Unitarian denomination. The 
Rev. Henry Ware, greatly esteemed and hon- 
ored, whose colleague he had been, addressed a 
letter to him, in which he expressed the feeling 
that some of the statements of Emerson's dis- 
course would tend to overthrow the authority 
and influence of Christianity. To this note Em- 
erson returned the following answer : — 

" What you say about the discourse at Divinity 
College is just what I might expect from your truth 
and charity, combined with your known opinions. I 
am not a stick or a stone, as one said in the old time, 
and could not but feel pain in saying some things in 
that place and presence which I supposed would meet 
with dissent, I may say, of dear friends and benefac- 
tors of mine. Yet, as my conviction is perfect in the 
substantial truth of the doctrines of this discourse, 
and is not very new, you will see at once that it must 
appear very important that it be spoken; and I 
thought I could not pay the nobleness of my friends 
so mean a compliment as to suppress my opposition 
to their supposed views, out of fear of offence. I 
would rather say to them, these things look thus to 



CORRESPONDENCE. 125 

me, to you otherwise. Let us say our uttermost\ 
word, and let the all-pervading truth, as it surely will, J \ 
judge between us. Either of us would, I doubt not, 
be willingly apprised of his error. Meantime, I shall 
be admonished by this expression of your thought, 
to revise with greater care the ' address,' before it 
is printed (for the use of the class) : and I heartily 
thank you for this expression of your tried toleration 
and love." 

Dr. Ware followed up his note with a sermon, 
preached on the 23d of September, in which he 
dwells especially on the necessity of adding the 
idea of personality to the abstractions of Emer- 
son's philosophy, and sent it to him with a letter, 
the kindness and true Christian spirit of which 
were only what were inseparable from all the 
thoughts and feelings of that most excellent and 
truly apostolic man. 

To this letter Emerson sent the following re- 
ply:— 

Concord, October 8, 1838. 
My dear Sir, — T ought sooner to have acknowl- 
edged your kind letter of last week, and the ser- 
mon it accompanied. The letter was right manly 
and noble. The sermon, too, I have read with atten- 
tion. If it assails any doctrine of mine, — perhaps 
I am not so quick to See it as writers generally, — 
certainly I did not feel any disposition to depart 
from my habitual contentment, that you should say 
your thought, whilst I say mine. I believe I must 



126 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

tell you what I think of my new position. It strikes 
me very ocldly that good and wise men at Cambridge 
and Boston should think of raising me into an ob- 
ject of criticism. I have always been — from my 
very incapacity of methodical writing — a ' char- 
tered libertine,' free to worship and free to rail, — 
lucky when I could make myself understood, but 
never esteemed near enough to the institutions and 
mind of society to deserve the notice of the masters 
of literature and religion. I have appreciated fully 
the advantages of my position, for I well know there 
is no scholar less willing or less able than myself to 
be a polemic. I could not give an account of myself, 
if challenged. I could not possibly give you one of 
the l arguments ' you cruelly hint at, on which any 
doctrine of mine stands ; for I do not know what 
arguments are in reference to any expression of a 
thought. I delight in telling what I think ; but if 
you ask me how I dare say so, or why it is so, I am 
the most helpless of mortal men. I do not even see 
that either of these questions admits of an answer. 
So that in the present droll posture of my affairs, 
when I see myself suddenly raised to the importance 
of a heretic, I am very uneasy when I advert to the 
supposed duties of such a personage, who is to make 
good his thesis against all comers. I certainly shall 
do no such thing. I shall read what you and other 
good men write, as I have ^always done, glad when 
you speak my thoughts, and skipping the page that 
has nothing for me. I shall go on just as before, 
\>f seeing whatever I can, and telling what I see ; and, 



LECTURES ON HUMAN LIFE. 127 

I suppose, with the same fortune that has hitherto 
attended me, — the joy of finding that my abler and 
better brothers, who work with the sympathy of so- 
ciety, loving and beloved, do now and then unex- 
pectedly confirm my conceptions, and find my non- 
sense is only their own thought in motley, — and so 
I am your affectionate servant," etc. 

The controversy which followed is a thing of 
the past ; Emerson took no part in it, and we 
need not return to the discussion. He knew his 
office and has defined it in the clearest manner 
in the letter just given, — " Seeing whatever I <; ^ 
can, and telling what I see." But among his 
listeners and readers was a man of very dif- 
ferent mental constitution, not more indepen- 
dent or fearless, but louder and more combat- 
ive, whose voice soon became heard and whose 
strength soon began to be felt in the long battle 
between the traditional and immanent inspira- 
tion, — Theodore Parker. If Emerson was the 
moving spirit, he was the right arm in the con- 
flict, which in one form or another has been 
waged up to the present day. 
/ In the winter of 1838-39 Emerson delivered 
his usual winter course of Lectures. He names 
them in a letter to Carlyle as follows : " Ten 
Lectures : I. The Doctrine of the Soul ; II. 
Home; III. The School; IY. Love; V. Gen- 
ius ; VI; The Protest ; VII. Tragedy ; VIII. 



J? 



128 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

Comedy ; IX. Duty ; X. Demonology. I de- 
signed to add two more, but my lungs played 
me false with unseasonable inflammation, so I 
discoursed no more on Human Life.^ Two or 
tliree of these titles only are prefixed to his pub- 
lished Lectures or Essays ; Love, in the first 
volume of Essays ; Demonology in " Lectures 
and Biographical Sketches ; " and " The Comic 
in " Letters and Social Aims." 



I owe the privilege of making use of the two 
following letters to my kind and honored friend, 
James Freeman Clarke. 

The first letter was accompanied by the Poem 
"The Humble-bee," which was first published 
by Mr. Clarke in the "Western Messenger," 
from the autograph copy, which begins " Fine 
humble-bee ! fine humble-bee ! " and has a num- 
ber of other variations from the poem as printed 
in his collected works. 

Concoed, December 7, 1838. 
My dear Sir, — Here are the verses. They 
have pleased some of my friends, and so may please 
some of your readers, and you asked me in the spring 
if I had n't somewhat to contribute to your journal. 
I remember in your letter you mentioned the remark 
of some friend of yours that the verses, " Take, O 
take those lips away," were not Shakspeare's ; I think 
they are. Beaumont, nor Fletcher, nor both together 
were ever, I think, visited by such a starry gleam as 



LETTERS TO JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE. 129 

that stanza. I know it is in " Rollo," but it is in 
" Measure for Measure " also ; and I remember no- 
ticing that the Malones, and Stevens, and critical 
gentry were about evenly divided, these for Shak- 
speare, and those for Beaumont and Fletcher. But 
the internal evidence is all for one, none for the 
other. If he did not write it, they did not, and we 
shall have some fourth unknown singer. What care 
we who sung this or that. It is we at last who sing. 
Your friend and servant, R. W. Emerson. 

TO JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE. 

Concord, February 27, 1839. 
My dear Sir, — I am very sorry to have made 
you wait so long for an answer to your flattering re- 
quest for two such little poems. You are quite wel- 
come to the lines " To the Rhodora ; " but I think 
they need the superscription [" Lines on being asked 
' Whence is the Flower ? ' ']. Of the other verses 
[" Good-by proud world," etc] I send you a cor- 
rected copy, but I wonder so much at your wishing 
to print them that I think you must read them once 
again with your critical spectacles before they go fur- 
ther. They were written sixteen years ago, when I 
kept school in Boston, and lived in a corner of Rox- 
bury called Canterbury. They have a slight misan- 
thropy, a shade deeper than belongs to me ; and as it 
seems nowadays I am a philosopher and am grown 
to have opinions, I think they must have an apolo- 
getic date, though I well know that poetry that needs 
a date is no poetry > and so you will wiselier suppress 
9 



130 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

them. I heartily wish I had any verses which with 
a clear mind I could send you in lieu of these juve- 
nilities. It is strange, seeing the delight we take in 
verses, that we can so seldom write them, and so are 
not ashamed to lay up old ones, say sixteen years, in- 
stead of improvising them as freely as the wind 
blows, whenever we and our brothers are attuned to 
music. I have heard of a citizen who made an an- 
nual joke. I believe I have in April or May an an- 
nual poetic conatus rather than afflatus, experiment- 
ing to the length of thirty lines or so, if I may judge 
from the dates of the rhythmical scraps I detect 
among my MSS. I look upon this incontinence as 
merely the redundancy of a susceptibility to poetry 
which makes all the bards my daily treasures, and I 
can well run the risk of being ridiculous once a year 
for the benefit of happy reading all the other days. 
In regard to the Providence Discourse, I have no 
copy of it ; and as far as I remember its contents, I 
have since used whatever is striking in it ; but I will 
get the MS., if Margaret Fuller has it, and you shall 
have it if it will pass muster. I shall certainly avail 
myself of the good order you gave me for twelve 
copies of the " Carlyle Miscellanies," so soon as they 
appear. He, T. C, writes in excellent spirits of his 
American friends and readers. ... A new book, he 
writes, is growing in him, though not to begin until 
his spring lectures are over (which begin in May). 
Your sister Sarah was kind enough to carry me the 
other day to see some pencil sketches done by Stuart 
Newton when in the Insane Hospital. They seemed 



DARTMOUTH COLLEGE ADDRESS. 131 

to me to betray the richest invention, so rich as al- 
most to say, why draw any line since you can draw 
all ? Genius has given you the freedom of the uni- 
verse, why then come within any walls ? And this 
seems to be the old moral which we draw from our 
fable, read it how or where you will, that we cannot 
make one good stroke until we can make every pos- 
sible stroke ; and when we can one, every one seems 
superfluous. I heartily thank you for the good 
wishes you send me to open the year, and I say them 
back again to you. Your field is a world, and all 
men are your spectators, and all men respect the 
true and great-hearted service you render. And yet 
it is not spectator nor spectacle that concerns either 
you or me. The whole world is sick of that very ail, 
of being seen, and of seemliness. . It belongs to the 
brave now to trust themselves infinitely, and to sit 
and hearken alone. I am glad to see William Chan- 
ning is one of your coadjutors. Mrs. Jameson's new 
book, I should think, would bring a caravan of trav- 
ellers, aesthetic, artistic, and what not, up your mighty 
stream, or along the lakes to Mackinaw. As I read 
I almost vowed an exploration, but I doubt if I ever 
get beyond the Hudson. 

Your affectionate servant, E,. W. Emerson- 

On the 15th of July, 1838, a little more than 
a week after the delivery of the Address before 
the Divinity School, Mr. Emerson delivered an 
Oration before the Literary Societies of Dart- 
mouth College./ If any rumor of the former 



132 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

discourse had reached Dartmouth, the audience 
must have been prepared for a much more start- 
ling performance than that to which they lis- 
tened. The bold avowal which fluttered the 
dovecotes of Cambridge would have sounded 
like the crash of doom to the cautious old ten- 
ants of the Hanover aviary. If there were any 
drops of false or questionable doctrine in the 
silver shower of eloquence under which they had 
been sitting, the plumage of orthodoxy glistened 
with unctuous repellents, and a shake or two on 
coming out of church left the sturdy old dog- 
matists as dry as ever. 

Those who remember the Dartmouth College 
of that day cannot help smiling at the thought 
of the contrast in the way of thinking between 
the speaker and the larger part, or at least the 
older part, of his audience. President Lord was 
well known as the scriptural defender of the in- 
stitution of slavery. Not long before a contro- 
versy had arisen, provoked by the setting up of 
the Episcopal form of worship by one of the 
Professors, the most estimable and scholarly Dr. 
Daniel Oliver. Perhaps, however, the extreme 
difference between the fundamental conceptions 
of Mr. Emerson and the endemic orthodoxy of 
that place and time was. too great for any hostile 
feeling to be awakened by the sweet-voiced and 
peaceful-mannered speaker, j There is a kind of 



LITERARY ETHICS. 133 

harmony between boldly contrasted beliefs like 
that between complementary colors. It is when 
two shades of the same color are brought side 
by side that comparison makes them odious to 
each other. Mr. Emerson could go anywhere 
and find willing listeners among those farthest 
in their belief from the views he held. Such 
was his simplicity of speech and manner, such 
his transparent sincerity, that it was next to im- 
possible to quarrel with the gentle image-breaker. 

/ The subject of Mr. Emerson's Address is Lit- 
erary Ethics. It is on the same lofty plane of 
sentiment and in the same exalted tone of elo- 
quence as the Phi Beta Kappa Address. The 
word impassioned would seem misplaced, if ap- 
plied to any of Mr. Emerson's orations. But 
these discourses were both written and delivered 
in the freshness of his complete manhood. They 
were produced at a time when his mind had 
learned its powers and the work to which it was 
called, in the struggle which freed him from the 
complaint of stereotyped confessions of faith 
and all peremptory external authority. It is not 
strange, therefore, to find some of his paragraphs 
glowing with heat and sparkling with imagina- 
tive illustration. 

/ " Neither years nor books," he says, " have 
yet availed to extirpate a prejudice rooted in 
me, that a scholar is the favorite of Heaven and 



V 



134 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

earth, the excellency of his country, the happiest 
of men." And yet, he confesses that the schol- 
ars of this country have not fulfilled the rea- 
sonable expectation of mankind. " Men here, 
as elsewhere, are indisposed to innovation and 
prefer any antiquity, any usage, any livery pro- 
ductive of ease or profit, to the unproductive 
^ service of thought." For all this he offers those 
correctives which in various forms underlie all 
his teachings. " The resources of the scholar 
are proportioned to his confidence in the attri- 
butes of the Intellect." New lessons of spirit- 
ual independence, fresh examples and illustra- 
tions, are drawn from history and biography. 
There is a passage here so true to nature that it 
permits a half page of quotation and a line or 
two of comment : — / 

/ " An intimation of these broad rights is familiar in 
the sense of injury which men feel in the assumption 
of any man to limit their possible progress. We re- 
sent all criticism which denies us anything that lies 
in our line of advance. Say to the man of letters, 
that he cannot paint a Transfiguration, or build a 
steamboat, or be a grand-marshal, and he will not 
seem to himself depreciated. But deny to him any 
quality of literary or metaphysical power, and he is 
piqued. Concede to him genius, which is a sort of 
stoical plenum annulling the comparative, and he is 
content ; but concede him talents never so rare, de- 
nying him genius, and he is aggrieved." 



LITERARY ETHICS. 135 

jl But it ought to be added that if the pleasure 
of denying the genius of their betters were de- 
nied to the mediocrities, their happiness would 
be forever blighted. 

From the resources of the American Scholar 
Mr. Emerson passes to his tasks. Nature, as it 
seems to him, has never yet been truly studied. 
" Poetry has scarcely chanted its first song. The 
perpetual admonition of Nature to us is, ' The 
world is new, untried. Do not believe the past. 
I give you the universe a virgin to-day.' " And 
in the same way he would have the scholar look 
at history, at philosophy. The world belongs to \ 
the student, but he must put himself into har-A 
mony with the constitution of things. " He 
must embrace solitude as a bride." Not super- 
stitiously, but after having found out, as a little 
experience will teach him, all that society can do 
for him with its foolish routine. I have spoken 
of the exalted strain into which Mr. Emerson 
sometimes rises in the midst of his general se- 
renity. Here is an instance of it : — 

/ 

"You will hear every day the maxims of a low 

prudence. You will hear that the first duty is to 

get land and money, place and name. ' What is this 

truth you seek ? What is this beauty ? ' men will 

ask, with derision. If, nevertheless, God have called 

any of you to explore truth and beauty, he hold, be 

firm, be true. When you shall say, 'As others do, so 



136 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

will I : I renounce, I am sorry for it, my early vis- 
ions : I must eat the good of the land, and let learn- 
ing and romantic expectations go, until a more con- 
venient season ; ' — then dies the man in you ; then 
once more perish the buds of art, and poetry, and sci- 
ence, as they have died already in a thousand thou- 
sand men. — Bend to the persuasion which is flowing 
to you from every object in nature, to be its tongue 
to the heart of man, and to show the besotted world 
how passing fair is wisdom. Why should you re- 
i nounce your right to traverse the starlit deserts of 
I truth, for the premature comforts of an acre, house, 
and barn ? Truth also has its roof and house and 
board. Make yourself necessary to the world, and 
mankind will give you bread ; and if not store of it, 
yet such as shall not take away your property in all 
men's possessions, in all men's affections, in art, in 
nature, and in hope." / 

/ The next Address Emerson delivered was 
" The Method of Nature,/' before the Society 
of the Adelphi, in Waterville College, Maine, 
August 11, 1841. 

In writing to Carlyle on the 31st of July, he 
says : " As usual at this season of the year, I, 
incorrigible spouting Yankee, am writing an ora- 
tion to deliver to the boys in one of our little 
country colleges nine days hence. . . . My whole 
philosophy — which is very real - — teaches ac- 

( quiescence and optimism. Only when I see how 
much work is to be done, what room for a poet 



"THE METHOD OF NATURE." 137 

— for any spiritualist — in this great, intelli- 
gent, sensual, and avaricious America, I lament 
I my fumbling fingers and stammering tongue." 
It may be remembered that Mr. Matthew Ar- 
nold quoted the expression about America, which 
sounded more harshly as pronounced in a public 
lecture than as read in a private letter. 

The Oration shows the same vein of thought 
as the letter. Its title is " The Method of Na- 
ture." He begins with congratulations on the 
enjoyments and promises of this literary Anni- 
versary. 

" The scholars are the priests of that thought which 
establishes the foundations of the castle." — " We \ 
hear too much of the results of machinery, commerce, i 
and the useful arts. We are a puny and a fickle 
folk. Avarice, hesitation, and following are our dis- 
eases. The rapid wealth which hundreds in the com- 
munity acquire in trade, or by the incessant expan- 
sion of our population and arts, enchants the eyes of 
all the rest ; this luck of one is the hope of thousands, 
and the bribe acts like the neighborhood of a gold 
mine to impoverish the farm, the school, the church, 
the house, and the very body and feature of man." — 
" While the multitude of men degrade each other, 
and give currency to desponding doctrines, the scholar 
must be a bringer of hope, and must reinforce man 
against himself." 

I think/we may detect more of the manner of 



138 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

Carlyle in this Address than in any of those 
which preceded it. 

» Why then goest thou as some Boswell or literary 
worshipper to this saint or to that ? That is the only 
lese-majesty. Here art thou with whom so long the 
universe travailed in labor ; darest thou think meanly 
c A)f thyself whom the stalwart Fate brought forth to 
(unite his ragged sides, to shoot the gulf, to reconcile 
the irreconcilable ? "^ 

That there is an " intimate divinity " which is 
the source of all true wisdom, that the duty of 
man is to listen to its voice and to follow it, that 
" the sanity of man needs the poise of this im- 
manent force," that the rule is " Do what you 
know, and perception is converted into char- 
acter," — all this is strongly enforced and richly 
illustrated in this Oration. Just how easily it 
was followed by the audience, just how far they 
were satisfied with its large principles wrought 
into a few broad precepts, it would be easier at 
this time to ask than to learn. We notice not so 
much the novelty of the ideas to be found in this 
discourse on " The Method of Nature," as the 
pictorial beauty of their expression. / The deep 
reverence which underlies all Emerson's specu- 
lations is well shown in this paragraph \f— 

^' We ought to celebrate this hour by expressions 

of manly joy. Not thanks nor prayer seem quite the 

/highest or truest name for our communication with 



11 THE METHOD OF NATURE." 139 

the infinite, — but glad and conspiring reception, — 
reception that becomes giving in its turn as the re- 
ceiver is only the All-Giver in part and in infancy." 
— "It is God in us which checks the language of 
petition by grander thought. In the bottom of the 
heart it is said : ' I am, and by me, O child ! this fair 
body and world of thine stands and grows. I am, 
all things are mine ; and all mine are thine.' " / 

We must not quarrel with his peculiar ex- 
pressions. He says, in this same paragraph, " I 
cannot, — nor can any man, — speak precisely 
of things so sublime; but it seems to me the 
wit of man, his strength, his grace, his tendency, 
his art, is the grace and the presence of Grod. 
It is beyond explanation." 

" "We can point nowhere to anything final but ten- 
dency ; but tendency appears on all hands ; planet, 
system, constellation, total nature is growing like a 
field of maize in July ; is becoming something else ; 
is in rapid metamorphosis. The embryo does not 
more strive to be man, than yonder burr of fight we 
call a nebula tends to be a ring, a comet, a globe, and 
parent of new stars." " In short, the spirit and pecu- 
liarity of that impression nature makes on us is this, 
that it does not exist to any one, or to any number of 
particular ends, but to numberless and endless benefit ; 
that there is in it no private will, no rebel leaf or 
limb, but the whole is oppressed by one superincum- 
bent tendency, obeys that redundancy or excess of 
life which in conscious beings we call ecstasy." / 



140 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

Here is another of those almost lyrical pas- 
sages which seem too long for the music of 
rhythm and the resonance of rhyme. / 

" The great Pan of old, who was clothed in a leop- 
ard skin to signify the beautiful variety of things, and 
the firmament, his coat of stars, was hut the repre- 
sentative of thee, O rich and various Man ! thou pal- 
ace of sight and sound, carrying in thy senses the 
morning and the night and the unfathomable galaxy ; 
in thy brain the geometry of the City of God ; in thy 
heart the bower of love and the realms of right and 
wrong." 

His feeling about the soul, which has shown 
itself in many of the extracts already given, is 
summed up in the following sentence : — 

"We cannot describe the natural history of the 
soul, but we know that it is divine. I cannot tell if 
these wonderful qualities which house to-day in this 
mental home shall ever reassemble in equal activity 
in a similar frame, or whether they have before had a 
natural history like that of this body you see before 
you ; but this one thing I know, that these qualities 
did not now begin to exist, cannot be sick with my 
sickness, nor buried in any grave ; but that they cir- 
culate through the Universe : before the world was, 
they were." 

It is hard to see the distinction between the 
omnipresent Deity recognized in our formal con- 



OTHER ADDRESSES. 141 

fessions of faith and the "pantheism" which is 
the object of dread to many of the faithful. But 
there are many expressions in this Address 
which must have sounded strangely and vaguely 
to his Christian audience. " Are there not mo- 
ments in the history of heaven when the human 
race was not counted by individuals, but was 
only the Influenced ; was God in distribution, 
God rushing into manifold benefit ? " It might 
be feared that the practical philanthropists would 
feel that they lost by his counsels. 

" The reform whose fame now fills the land with 
Temj)erance, Anti-Slavery, Non-Resistance, No Gov- 
ernment, Equal Labor, fair and generous as each 
appears, are poor bitter things when prosecuted for 
themselves as an end." — "I say to you plainly there 
is no end to which your practical faculty can aim so 
sacred or so large, that if pursued for itself, will not 
at last become carrion and an offence to the nostril. 
The imaginative faculty of the soul must be fed with 
objects immense and eternal. Your end should be 
one inapprehensible to the senses ; then it will be a 
god, always approached, — never touched ; always 
giving health." 

Nothing is plainer than that it was Emer- 
son's calling to supply impulses and not meth- 
ods. He was not an organizer, but a power be- 
hind many organizers, inspiring them with lofty 
motive, giving breadth to their views, always 



142 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

tending to become narrow through concentration 
on their special objects. The Oration we have 
been examining was delivered in the interval be- 
tween the delivery of two Addresses, one called 
" Man the Reformer," and another called " Lec- 
ture on the Times." In the first he preaches 
the dignity and virtue of manual labor ; that 
" a man should have a farm, or a mechanical 
craft for his culture." — That he cannot give 
up labor without suffering some loss of power. 
" How can the man who has learned but one art 
procure all the conveniences of life honestly ? 
Shall we say all we think ? — Perhaps with his 
own hands. — Let us learn the meaning of econ- 
omy. — Parched corn eaten to-day that I may 
have roast fowl to my dinner on Sunday is a 
baseness ; but parched corn and a house with 
one apartment, that I may be free of all pertur- 
bation, that I may be serene and docile to what 
the mind shall speak, and quit and road-ready 
for the lowest mission of knowledge or good will, 
is frugality for gods and heroes." 

This was what Emerson wrote in January, 
1841. This a house with one apartment " was 
what Thoreau built with his own hands in 1845. 
In April of the former year, he went to live 
with Mr. Emerson, but had been on intimate 
terms with him previously to that time. Whether 
it was from him that Thoreau got the hint of 



"LECTURE ON TEE TIMES." 143 

the Walden cabin and the parched corn, or 
whether this idea was working in Thoreau's mind 
and was suggested to Emerson by him, is of no 
great consequence. Emerson, to whom he owed 
so much, may well have adopted some of those 
fancies which Thoreau entertained, and after- 
wards worked out in practice. He was at the 
philanthropic centre of a good many movements 
which he watched others carrying out, as a calm 
and kindly spectator, without losing his common 
sense for a moment. It would never have oc- 
curred to him to leave all the conveniences and 
comforts of life to go and dwell in a shanty, so 
as to prove to himself that he could live like 
a savage, or like his friends " Teague and his 
jade," as he called the man and brother and 
sister, more commonly known nowadays as Pat, 
or Patrick, and his old woman. 

" The Americans have many virtues," he says 
in this Address, " but they have not Faith and 
Hope." Faith and Hope, Enthusiasm and Love, 
are the burden of this Address. But he would 
regulate these qualities by " a great prospec- 
tive prudence," which shall mediate between the 
spiritual and the actual world. 

In the " Lecture on the Times " he shows very 
clearly the effect which a nearer contact with 
the class of men and women who called them- 
selves Reformers had upon him. 



144 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

" The Keforms have their higher origin in an ideal 
justice, but they do not retain the purity of an idea. 
They are quickly organized in some low, inadequate 
form, and present no more poetic image to the mind 
than the evil tradition which they reprobated. They 
mix the fire of the moral sentiment with personal 
and party heats, with measureless exaggerations, and 
the blindness that prefers some darling measure to 
justice and truth. Those who are urging with most 
ardor what are called the greatest benefit of mankind 
are narrow, self-pleasing, conceited men, and affect 
us as the insane do. They bite us, and we run mad 
also. I think the work of the reformer as innocent 
as other work tkat is done around him ; but when 
I have seen it near ! — I do not like it better. It 
is done in the same way; it is done profanely, not 
piously ; by management, by tactics and clamor." 

All this, and much more like it, would hardly 
have been listened to by the ardent advocates of 
the various reforms, if anybody but Mr. Emer- 
son had said it. He undervalued no sincere ac- 
tion except to suggest a wiser and better one. 
He attacked no motive which had a good aim, 
except in view of some larger and loftier prin- 
ciple. The charm of his imagination and the 
music of his words took away all the sting from 
the thoughts that penetrated to the very marrow 
of the entranced listeners. Sometimes it was a 
splendid hyperbole that illuminated a statement 



"THE TRANSCENDENTALIST" 145 

which by the dim light of common speech would 
have offended or repelled those who sat before 
him. He knew the force of felix audacia as 
well as any rhetorician could have taught him. 
He addresses the reformer with one of those 
daring images which defy the critics. 
/ " As the farmer casts into the ground the finest 
ears of his grain, the time will come when we too 
shall hold nothing back, but shall eagerly convert 
more than we possess into means and powers, 
when we shall be willing to sow the sun and the 
moon for seeds." 

He said hard things to the reformer, espe- 
cially to the Abolitionist, in his " Lecture on the 
Times." It would have taken a long while to 
get rid of slavery if some of Emerson's teach- 
ings in this lecture had been accepted as the 
true gospel of liberty. But how much its last 
sentence covers with its soothing tribute ! 

"All the newspapers, all the tongues of to- 
day will of course defame what is noble ; but 
you who hold not of to-day, not of the times, but 
of the Everlasting, are to stand for it ; and 
the highest compliment man ever receives from 
Heaven is the sending to him its disguised and 
discredited angels." /' 

The Lecture called " The Transcendentalist " 
will naturally be looked at with peculiar inter- 
est, inasmuch as this term has been very com- 

10 



146 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

monly applied to Emerson, and to many who 
were considered as his disciples. It has a proper 
philosophical meaning, and it has also a local 
and accidental application to the individuals of 
a group which came together very much as any 
literary club might collect about a teacher. All 
this comes out clearly enough in the Lecture. 
In the first place, Emerson explains that the 
" new views" as they are called, are the oldest 
of thoughts cast in a new mould. 

" What is popularly called Transcendentalism 
among us is Idealism : Idealism as it appears in 
1842. As thinkers, mankind have ever divided into 
two sects, Materialists and Idealists ; the first class 
founding on experience, the second on consciousness ; 
the first class beginning to think from the data of the 
senses, the second class perceive that the senses are 
not final, and say, the senses give us representations 
of things, but what are the things themselves, they 
cannot tell. The materialist insists on facts, on his- 
tory, on the force of circumstances and the animal 
wants of man ; the idealist on the power of Thought 
and of Will, on inspiration, on miracle, on individual 
culture." 

" The materialist takes his departure from the ex- 
ternal world, and esteems a man as one product of 
that. The idealist takes his departure from his con- 
sciousness, and reckons the world an appearance. — 
His thought, that is the Universe." / 

The association of scholars and thinkers to 



" THE TRANSCENDENT ALIST." 147 

which the name of " Transcendentalists " was 
applied, and which made itself an organ in the 
periodical known as " The Dial," has been writ- 
ten about by many who were in the movement, 
and others who looked on or got their knowl- 
edge of it at second hand. Emerson was closely 
associated with these " same Transcendental- 
ists," and a leading contributor to "The Dial," 
which was their organ. The movement bor- 
rowed its inspiration more from him than from 
any other source, and the periodical owed more 
to him than to any other writer. So far as his 
own relation to the circle of illuminati and the 
dial which they shone upon was concerned, he 
himself is the best witness. 

In his " Historic Notes of Life and Letters 
in New England," he sketches in a rapid way 
the series of intellectual movements which led 
to the development of the " new views " above 
mentioned. " There are always two parties," 
he says, " the party of the Past and the party of 
the Future ; the Establishment and the Move- 
ment." 

About 1820, and in the twenty years which 
followed, an era of activity manifested itself 
in the churches, in politics, in philanthropy, in 
literature. In our own community the influence 
of Swedenborg and of the genius and character 
of Dr. Channing were among the more immedi- 



148 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

ate early causes of the mental agitation. Emer- 
son attributes a great importance to the schol- 
arship, the rhetoric, the eloquence, of Edward 
Everett, who returned to Boston in 1820, after 
five years of study in Europe. Edward Everett 
is already to a great extent a tradition, some- 
what as Rufus Choate is, a voice, a fading echo, 
as must be the memory of every great orator. 
These wondrous personalities have their truest 
and warmest life in a few old men's memories. 
It is therefore with delight that one who remem- 
bers Everett in his robes of rhetorical splendor, 
who recalls his full-blown, high-colored, double- 
flowered periods, the rich, resonant, grave, far- 
reaching music of his speech, with just enough 
of nasal vibration to give the vocal sounding- 
board its proper value in the harmonies of ut- 
terance, — it is with delight that such a one 
reads the glowing words of Emerson whenever 
he refers to Edward Everett. It is enough if 
he himself caught inspiration from those elo- 
quent lips ; but many a listener has had his 
youthful enthusiasm fired by that great master 
of academic oratory. 

/ Emerson follows out the train of influences 
which added themselves to the impulse given by 
Mr. Everett. German scholarship, the growth 
of science, the generalizations of Goethe, the 
idealism of Schelling, the influence of Words- 



"THE TRANSCENDENTALIST." 149 

worth, of Coleridge, of Carlyle, and in our im- 
mediate community, the writings of Channing, 
— he left it to others to say of Emerson, — all 
had their part in this intellectual, or if we may 
call it so, spiritual revival. ) He describes with 
that exquisite sense of the ridiculous which was 
a part of his mental ballast, the first attempt at 
organizing an association of cultivated, thought- 
ful people. They came together, the cultivated, 
thoughtful people, at Dr. John Collins War- 
ren's, — Dr. Channing, the great Dr. Channing, 
among the rest, full of the great thoughts he 
wished to impart. The preliminaries went on 
smoothly enough with the usual small talk, — 

" When a side-door opened, the whole company 
streamed in to an oyster supper, crowned by excel- 
lent wines [this must have been before Dr. War- 
ren's temperance epoch], and so ended the first at- 
tempt to establish aesthetic society in Boston. 

" Some time afterwards Dr. Channing opened his 
mind to Mr. and Mrs. Ripley, and with some care 
they invited a limited parHy of ladies and gentlemen. 
I had the honor to be present. — Margaret Fuller, 
George Ripley, Dr. Convers Francis, Theodore 
Parker, Dr. Hedge, Mr. Brownson, James Freeman 
Clarke, William H. Channing, and many others grad- 
ually drew together, and from time to time spent an 
afternoon at each other's houses in a serious conver- 
sation." 



150 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

With them was another, " a pure Idealist, — 
who read Plato as an equal, and inspired his 
companions only in proportion as they were in- 
tellectual." He refers, of course to Mr. Alcott. 
Emerson goes on to say : — 

" I think there prevailed at that time a general be- 
lief in Boston that there was some concert of doctri- 
naires to establish certain opinions, and inaugurate 
some movement in literature, philosophy, and relig- 
ion, of which design the supposed conspirators were 
quite innocent ; for there was no concert, and only 
here and there two or three men and women who read 
and wrote, each alone, with unusual vivacity. Per- 
haps they only agreed in having fallen upon Coleridge 
and Wordsworth and Goethe, then on Carlyle, with 
pleasure and sympathy. Otherwise their education 
and reading were not marked, but had the Ameri- 
can superficialness, and their studies were solitary. 
I suppose all of them were surprised at this rumor of 
a school or sect, and certainly at the name of Tram 
scendentalism, given, nobody knows by whom, or 
when it was applied." 

Emerson's picture of some of these friends of 
his is so peculiar as to suggest certain obvious 
and not too nattering comments. 

"In like manner, if there is anything grand and 
daring in human thought or virtue ; any reliance on 
the vast, the unknown ; any presentiment, any ex- 
travagance of faith, the Spiritualist adopts it as most 
in nature. The Oriental mind has always tended to 



/ 



"THE TRANSCENDENTALIST." 151 

this largeness. Buddhism is an expression of it. The 
Buddhist, who thanks no man, who says, ' Do not 
flatter your benefactors,' but who in his conviction 
that every good deed can by no possibility escape its 
reward, will not deceive the benefactor by pretending 
that he has done more than he should, is a Tran- 
scendentalist. 

" These exacting children advertise us of our wants. 
There is no compliment, no smooth speech with them ; 
they pay you only this one compliment, of insatia- ; 
ble expectation ; they aspire, they severely exact, and . S 
if they only stand fast in this watch-tower, and per- 
sist in demanding unto the end, and without end, 
then are they terrible friends, whereof poet and priest 
cannot choose but stand in awe ; and what if they 
eat clouds, and drink wind, they have not been with- 
out service to the race of man." 

The person who adopts " any presentiment, 
any extravagance as most in nature," is not com- 
monly called a Transcendentalist, but is known 
colloquially as a " crank." The person who does 
not thank, by word or look, the friend or stran- 
ger who has pulled him out of the fire or water, 
is fortunate if he gets off with no harder name 
than that of a churl. 

Nothing was farther from Emerson himself 
than whimsical eccentricity or churlish austerity. 
But there was occasionally an air of bravado in 
some of his followers as if they had taken out a 
patent for some knowing machine which was to 



152 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

give them a monopoly of its products. They 
claimed more for each other than was reason- 
able, — so much occasionally that their preten- 
sions became ridiculous. One was tempted to 
ask : " What forlorn hope have you led ? What 
immortal book have you written ? What great 
discovery have you made ? What heroic task of 
any kind have you performed ? " There was 
too much talk about earnestness and too little 
real work done. Aspiration too frequently got 
as far as the alpenstock and the brandy flask, 
but crossed no dangerous crevasse, and scaled 
no arduous summit. In short, there was a kind 
of " Transcendentalist " dilettanteism, which be- 
trayed itself by a phraseology as distinctive as 
that of the Delia Cruscans of an earlier time, s 
In reading the following description of the 
" intelligent and religious persons " who be- 
longed to the " Transcendentalist " communion, 
the reader must remember that it is Emerson 
who draws the portrait, — a friend and not a 
scoffer : — 

" They are not good citizens, not good members of 
society : unwillingly they bear their part of the pub- 
lic and private burdens ; they do not willingly share 
in the public charities, in the public religious rites, in 
the enterprise of education, of missions, foreign and 
domestic, in the abolition of the slave-trade, or in the 
temperance society. They do not even like to vote." 



"THE TRANSCEND EN TALI ST." 153 

After arraigning the representatives of Tran- 
scendental or spiritual beliefs in this way, he 
summons them to plead for themselves, and this 
is what they have to say : — 

" ( New, we confess, and by no means happy, is our 
condition : if you want the aid of our labor, we our- 
selves stand in greater want of the labor. We are 
miserable with inaction. We perish of rest and rust : 
but we do not like your work.' 

" ' Then,' says the world, ' show me your own.' 

" ' We have none.' 

" ' What will you do, then ? ' cries the world. 

" < We will wait.' 

" < How long ? ' 

" ' Until the Universe beckons and calls us to 
work.' 

" ' But whilst you wait you grow old and useless.' 

" ' Be it so : I can sit in a corner and perish (as 
you call it), but I will not move until I have the 
highest command.' " 

And so the dissatisfied tenant of this unhappy 
creation goes on with his reasons for doing noth- 
ing. 

It is easy to stay away from church and from 
town-meetings. It is easy to keep out of the 
way of the contribution box and to let the sub- 
scription paper go by us to the next door. The 
common duties of life and the good offices so- 



154 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

ciety asks o£ us may be left to take care of 
themselves while we contemplate the infinite. 
There is no safer fortress for indolence than 
"the Everlasting No." The chimney-corner is 
the true arena for this class of philosophers, and 
the pipe and mug furnish their all-sufficient pan- 
oply. Emerson undoubtedly met with some of 
them among his disciples. His wise counsel did 
not always find listeners in a fitting condition to 
receive it. He was a sower who went forth to 
sow. Some of the good seed fell among the 
thorns of criticism. Some fell on the rocks of 
hardened conservatism. Some fell by the way- 
side and was picked up by the idlers who went 
to the lecture-room to get rid of themselves. 
But when it fell upon the right soil it bore a 
growth of thought which ripened into a harvest 
of large and noble lives. 

Emerson shows up the weakness of his young 
enthusiasts with that delicate wit which warns 
its objects rather than wounds them. But he 
makes it all up with the dreamers before he can 
let them go. 

" Society also has its duties in reference to this 
class, and must behold them with what charity it can. 
Possibly some benefit may yet accrue from them to 
the state. Besides our coarse implements, there must 
be some few finer instruments, — rain-gauges, ther- 
mometers, and telescopes ; and in society, besides far- 



BOSTON "TRANSCENDENTALISM." 155 

rners, sailors, and weavers, there must be a few persons 
of purer fire kept specially as gauges and meters of 
character ; persons of a fine, detecting instinct, who 
note the smallest accumulations of wit and feeling in 
the by-stancler. Perhaps too there might be room for 
the exciters and monitors ; collectors of the heavenly 
spark, with power to convey the electricity to others. 
Or, as the storm-tossed vessel at sea speaks the frigate 
or "line-packet" to learn its longitude, so it may not 
be without its advantage that we should now and 
then encounter rare and gifted men, to compare the 
points of our spiritual compass, and verify our bear- 
ings from superior chronometers." 

It must be confessed that it is not a very cap- 
tivating picture which Emerson draws of some 
of his transcendental friends. Their faults were 
naturally still more obvious to those outside of 
their charmed circle, and some prejudice, very 
possibly, mingled with their critical judgments. 
On the other hand we have the evidence of a 
visitor who knew a good deal of the world as to 
the impression they produced upon him : — 

"There has sprung up in Boston," says Dickens, 
in his " American Notes," " a sect of philosophers 
known as Transcendentalists. On inquiring what this 
appellation might be supposed to signify, I was given 
to understand that whatever was unintelligible would 
\ be certainly Transcendental. Not deriving much 
\ comfort from this elucidation, I pursued the inquiry 



156 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

still further, and found that the Transcendentalists 
are followers of my friend Mr. Carlyle, or, I should 
rather say, of a follower of his, Mr. Ralph Waldo 
Emerson. This gentleman has written a volume of 
Essays, in which, among much that is dreamy and 
fanciful (if he will pardon me for saying so), there 
is much more that is true and manly, honest and 
bold. Transcendentalism has its occasional vaga- 
ries (what school has not ?), but it has good health- 
ful qualities in spite of them ; not least among the 
number a hearty disgust of Cant, and an aptitude to 
detect her in all the million varieties of her everlast- 
ing wardrobe. And therefore, if I were a Boston- 
ian, I think I would be a Transcendentalism" , 

In December, 1841, Emerson delivered a Lec- 
ture entitled " The • Conservative." It was a 
time of great excitement among the members of 
that circle of which he was the spiritual leader. 
Never did Emerson show the perfect sanity 
which characterized his practical judgment more 
beautifully than in this Lecture and in his whole 
course with reference to the intellectual agita- 
tion of the period. He is as fair to the conser- 
vative as to the reformer. He sees the fanati- 
cism of the one as well as that of the other. 
" Conservatism tends to universal seeming and 
treachery ; believes in a negative fate ; believes 
that men's tempers govern them ; that for me 
it avails not to trust in principles, they will fail 



A JOURNAL PROPOSED. 157 

me, I must bend a little ; it distrusts Nature ; 
it thinks there is a general law without a par- 
ticular application, — law for all that does not 
include any one. Reform in its antagonism in- 
clines to asinine resistance, to kick with hoofs ; 
it runs to egotism and bloated self-conceit ; it 
runs to a bodiless pretension, to unnatural refin- 
ing and elevation, which ends in hypocrisy and 
sensual reaction. And so, whilst we do not 
go beyond general statements, it may be safely 
affirmed of these two metaphysical antagonists 
that each is a good half, but an impossible 
whole." 

He has his beliefs, and, if you will, his preju- 
dices, but he loves fair play, and though he sides 
with the party of the future, he will not be un- 
just to the present or the past. 

We read in a letter from Emerson to Carlyle, 
dated March 12, 1835, that Dr. Channing "lay 
awake all night, he told my friend last week, 
because he had learned in the evening that some 
young men proposed to issue a journal, to be 
called 4 The Transcendentalist,' as the organ of 
a spiritual philosophy." Again on the 30th of 
April of the same year, in a letter in which he 
lays out a plan for a visit of Carlyle to this 
country, Emerson says : — 

" It was suggested that if Mr. C. would undertake 



158 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

a journal of which we have talked much, hut which 
we have never yet produced, he would do us great 
service, and we feel some confidence that it could be 
made to secure him a support. It is that project 
which I mentioned to you in a letter by Mr. Bar- 
nard, — a book to be called ' The Transcendentalist ; ' 
or, 'The Spiritual Inquirer,' or the like. . . . Those 
who are most interested in it designed to make gra- 
tuitous contribution to its pages, until its success 
could be assured." 

The idea of the grim Scotchman as editor of 
what we came in due time to know as " The 
Dial ! " A concert of singing mice with a sav- 
age and hungry old grimalkin as leader of the 
orchestra ! It was much safer to be content 
with Carlyle's purring from his own side of the 
water, as thus : — 

" ' The Boston Transcendentalist,' whatever 
the fate or merit of it may prove to be, is surely 
an interesting symptom. There must be things 
not dreamt of over in that Transoceanic par- 
ish! I shall certainly wish- well to this thing; 
and hail it as the sure forerunner of things 
better." 

There were two notable products of the intel- 
lectual ferment of the Transcendental period 
which deserve an incidental notice here, from 
the close connection which Emerson had with 



" the dial:' 159 

one of them and the interest which he took in 
the other, in which many of his friends were 
more deeply concerned. These were the peri- 
odical just spoken of as a possibility realized, 
and the industrial community known as Brook 
Farm. They were to a certain extent synchro- 
nous, — the Magazine beginning in July, 1840, 
and expiring in April, 1844 ; Brook Farm being 
organized in 1841, and breaking up in 1847. 

" The Dial " was edited at first by Margaret 
Fuller, afterwards by Emerson, who contributed 
more than thirty articles in prose and verse, 
among them " The Conservative," " The Tran- 
scendentalist," " Chardon Street and Bible Con- 
vention," and some of his best and best known 
poems, " The Problem," " Woodnotes," " The 
Sphinx," " Fate." The other principal writers 
were Margaret Fuller, A. Bronson Alcott, 
George Ripley, James Freeman Clarke, Theo- 
dore Parker, William H. Channing, Henry 
Thoreau, Eliot Cabot, John S. Dwight, C. P. 
Cranch, William Ellery Channing, Mrs. Ellen 
Hooper, and her sister Mrs. Caroline Tappan. 
Unequal as the contributions are in merit, the 
periodical is of singular interest. It was con- 
ceived and carried on in a spirit of boundless 
hope and enthusiasm. Time and a narrowing 
subscription list proved too hard a trial, and its 
four volumes remain stranded, like some rare 



160 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

and curiously patterned shell which a storm of 
yesterday has left beyond the reach of the reced- 
ing waves. Thoreau wrote for nearly every num- 
ber. Margaret Fuller, less attractive in print 
than in conversation, did her part as a contribu- 
tor as well as editor. Theodore Parker came 
down with his "trip-hammer" in its pages. 
Mrs. Ellen Hooper published a few poems in 
its columns which remain, always beautiful, in 
many memories. Others, whose literary lives 
have fulfilled their earlier promise, and who are 
still with us, helped forward the new enterprise 
with their frequent contributions. It is a pleas- 
ure to turn back to "The Dial," with all its 
crudities. It should be looked through by the 
side of the "Anthology." Both were April 
buds, opening before the frosts were over, but 
with the pledge of a better season. 

We get various hints touching the new Mag- 
azine in the correspondence between Emerson 
and Carlyle. Emerson tells Carlyle, a few 
months before the first number appeared, that 
it will give him a better knowledge of our young 
people than any he has had. It is true that un- 
fledged writers found a place to try their wings 
in it, and that makes it more interesting. This 
was the time above all others when out of the 
mouth of babes and sucklings was to come forth 
strength. The feeling that intuition was discov- 



"THE dial: 1 161 

ering a new heaven and a new eartli was the 
inspiration of these "young people" to whom 
Emerson refers. He has to apologize for the 
first number. " It is not yet much," he says ; 
"indeed, though no copy has come to me, I 
know it is far short of what it should be, for 
they have suffered puffs and dulness to creep 
in for the sake of the complement of pages, but 
it is better than anything we had. — The Ad- 
dress of the Editors to the Readers is all the 
prose that is mine, and whether they have 
printed a few verses for me I do not know." 
They did print " The Problem." There were 
also some fragments of criticism from the writ- 
ings of his brother Charles, and the poem called 
** The Last Farewell," by his brother Edward, 
which is to be found in Emerson's " May-day 
and other Pieces." 

On the 30th of August, after the periodical 
had been published a couple of months, Emer- 
son writes : — 

" Our community begin to stand in some terror 
of Transcendentalism ; and the Dial, poor little thing, 
whose first number contains scarce anything consider- 
able or even visible, is just now honored by attacks 
from almost every newspaper and magazine ; which 
at least betrays the irritability and the instincts of the 
good public." 

Carlyle finds the second number of "The 
11 



162 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

Dial " better than the first, and tosses his chari- 
table recognition, as if into an alms-basket, with 
his usual air of superiority. He distinguishes 
what is Emerson's readily, — the rest he speaks 
of as the work of ol 7roAW for the most part. 
" But it is all good and very good as a soul ; 
wants only a body, which want means a great 
deal." And again, " 4 The Dial,' too, it is all 
spirit like, aeri-form, aurora-borealis like. Will 
no Angel body himself out of that ; no stalwart 
Yankee man, with color in the cheeks of him 
and a coat on his back ? " 

Emerson, writing to Carlyle in March, 1842, 
speaks of the " dubious approbation on the part 
of you and other men," notwithstanding which 
he found it with "a certain class of men and 
women, though few, an object of tenderness and 
religion." So, when Margaret Fuller gave it 
up, at the end of the second volume, Emerson 
consented to become its editor. " I cannot bid 
you quit ' The Dial,' " says Carlyle, " though 
it, too, alas, is Antinomian somewhat ! Perge, 
perge, nevertheless." 

In the next letter he says : — 

" I love your ' Dial,' and yet it is with a kind of 
shudder. You seem to me in danger of dividing 
yourselves from the Fact of this present Universe, in 
which alone, ugly as it is, can I find any anchorage, 
and soaring away after Ideas, Beliefs, Revelations, 



« the dial:' 163 

and such like, — into perilous altitudes, as I think ; 
beyond the curve of perpetual frost, for one thing. 
I know not how to utter what impression you give 
me ; take the above as some stamping of the fore- 
hoof." 

A curious way of characterizing himself as a 
critic, — but he was not always as well-mannered 
as the Houyhnhnms. 

To all Carlyle's complaints of " The Dial's " 
short-comings Emerson did not pretend to give 
any satisfactory answer, but his plea of guilty, 
with extenuating circumstances, is very honest 
and definite. 

" For the Dial and its sins, I have no defence to 
set up. We write as we can, and we know very 
little about it. If the direction of these speculations 
is to be deplored, it is yet a fact for literary history 
that all the bright boys, and girls in New England, 
quite ignorant of each other, take the world so, and 
come and make confession to fathers and mothers, — 
the boys, that they do not wish to go into trade, the 
girls, that they do not like morning calls and evening 
parties. They are all religious, but hate the churches ; 
they reject all the ways of living of other men, but 
have none to offer in their stead. Perhaps one of 
these days a great Yankee shall come, who will easily 
do the unknown deed." 

" All the bright boys and girls in New Eng- 
land," and " ' The Dial ' dying of inanition ! " 



164 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

In October, 1840, Emerson writes to Car- 
lyle : - 

" We are all a little wild here with numberless 
projects of social reform. Not a reading man but 
has a draft of a new community in his waistcoat 
pocket. I am gently mad myself, and am resolved 
to live cleanly. George Ripley is talking up a colony 
of agriculturists and scholars, with whom he threat- 
ens to take the field and the book. One man re- 
nounces the use of animal food ; and another of coin ; 
and another of domestic hired service ; and another 
of the state ; and on the whole we have a commend- 
able share of reason and hope." 

Mr. Ripley's project took shape in the West 
Roxbury Association, better known under the 
name of Brook Farm. Emerson was not in- 
volved in this undertaking. He looked upon it 
with curiosity and interest, as he would have 
looked at a chemical experiment, but he seems 
to have had only a moderate degree of faith in its 
practical working. " It was a noble . and gener- 
ous movement in the projectors to try an exper- 
iment of better living. One would say that im- 
pulse was the rule in the society, without centri- 
petal balance ; perhaps it would not be severe 
to say, intellectual sans-culottism, an impatience 
of the formal routinary character of our educa- 
tional, religious, social, and economical life in 
Massachusetts." 



BROOK FARM. 165 

The reader will find a full detailed account 
of the Brook Farm experiment in Mr. Frothing- 
ham's "Life of George Ripley," its founder, 
and the first President of the Association. Em- 
erson had only tangential relations with the ex- 
periment, and tells its story in his " Historic 
Notes " very kindly and respectfully, but with 
that sense of the ridiculous in the aspect of some 
of its conditions which belongs to the sagacious 
common-sense side of his nature. The married 
women, he says, were against the community. 
" It was to them like the brassy and lacquered 
life in hotels. The common school was well 
enough, but to the common nursery they had 
grave objections. Eggs might be hatched in 
ovens, but the hen on her own account much 
preferred the old way. A hen without her 
chickens was but half a hen." Is not the in- 
audible, inward laughter of Emerson more re- 
freshing than the explosions of our noisiest 
humorists ? 

This is his benevolent summing up : — 

"The founders of Brook Farm should have this 
praise, that they made what all people try to make, 
an agreeable place to live in. All comers, even the 
most fastidious, found it the pleasantest of residences. 
It is certain, that freedom from household routine, 
variety of character and talent, variety of work, vari- 
ety of means of thought and instruction, art, music, 



166 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

poetry, reading, masquerade, did not permit slug- 
gishness or despondency ; broke up routine. There 
is agreement in the testimony that it was, to most of 
the associates, education ; to many, the most impor- 
tant period of their life, the birth of valued friend- 
ships, their first acquaintance with the riches of con- 
versation, their training in behavior. The art of let- 
ter-writing, it is said, was immensely cultivated. Let- 
ters were always flying, not only from house to house, 
but from room to room. It was a perpetual picnic, 
a French Revolution in small, an Age of Reason in a 
patty-pan." 

The public edifice called the " Phalanstery " 
was destroyed by fire in 1846. The Association 
never recovered from this blow, and soon after- 
wards it was dissolved. 

§ 2. Emerson's first volume of his collected 
Essays was published in 1841. In the reprint 
it contains the following Essays : History ; 
Self -Reliance ; Compensation ; Spiritual Laws ; 
Love ; Friendship ; Prudence ; Heroism ; The 
Over - Soul ; Circles ; Intellect ; Art. " The 
Young American," which is now included in the 
volume, was not delivered until 1844. 

Once accustomed to Emerson's larger for- 
mulae we can to a certain extent project from 
our own minds his treatment of special sub- 
jects. But we cannot anticipate the daring im- 



"HISTORY." 167 

agination, the subtle wit, the curious illustra- 
tions, the felicitous language, which make the 
Lecture or the Essay captivating as read, and 
almost entrancing as listened to by the teacha- 
ble disciple. The reader must be prepared for 
occasional extravagances. Take the Essay on 
History, in the first series of Essays, for in- 
stance. " Let it suffice that in the light of 
these two facts, namely, that the mind is One, 
and that nature is its correlative, history is to be 
read and written." When we come to the ap- 
plication, in the same Essay, almost on the same 
page, what can we make of such discourse as 
this ? The sentences I quote do not follow im- 
mediately, one upon the other, but their sense 
is continuous. 

"I hold an actual knowledge very cheap. 
Hear the rats in the wall, see the lizard on the 
fence, the fungus under foot, the lichen on the 
log. What do I know sympathetically, morally, 
of either of these worlds of life ? — How many 
times we must say Rome and Paris, and Con- 
stantinople ! What does Rome know of rat and 
lizard ? What are Olympiads and Consulates 
to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, 
what food or experience or succor have they for 
the Esquimau seal-hunter, for the Kamchatcan 
in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, 
the porter ? " 



168 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

The connection of ideas is not obvious. One 
can hardly help being reminded of a certain 
great man's Rochester speech as commonly re- 
ported by the story-teller. " Rome in her proud- 
est days never had a waterfall a hundred and 
fifty feet high ! Greece in her palmiest days 
never had a waterfall a hundred and fifty feet 
high ! Men of Rochester, go on ! No people 
ever lost their liberty who had a waterfall a 
hundred and fifty feet high ! " 

We cannot help smiling, perhaps laughing, at 
the odd mixture of Rome and rats, of Olym- 
piads and Esquimaux. But the underlying idea 
of the interdependence of all that exists in na- 
ture is far from ridiculous. Emerson says, not 
absurdly or extravagantly, that " every history 
should be written in a wisdom which divined 
the range of our affinities and looked at facts as 
symbols." 

We have become familiar with his doctrine 
of " Self -Reliance," which is the subject of the 
second lecture of the series. We know that he 
always and everywhere recognized that the di- 
vine voice which speaks authoritatively in the 
soul of man is the source of all our wisdom. It 
is a man's true self, so that it follows that abso- 
lute, supreme self-reliance is the law of his being. 
But see how he guards his proclamation of self- 
reliance as the guide of mankind. 



"COMPENSATION."— "SPIRITUAL LAWS." 169 

" Truly it demands something god-like in him who 
has cast off the common motives of humanity and has 
ventured to trust himself for a task-master. High be 
his heart, faithful his will, clear his sight, that he 
may in good earnest be doctrine, society, law, to him- 
self, that a simple purpose may be to him as strong 
as iron necessity is to others ! " 

" Compensation " might be preached in a 
synagogue, and the Rabbi would be praised for 
his performance. Emerson had been listening 
to a sermon from a preacher esteemed for his 
orthodoxy, in which it was assumed that judg- 
ment is not executed in this world, that the 
wicked are successful, and the good are misera- 
ble. This last proposition agrees with John 
Bunyan's view : — 

" A Christian man is never long at ease, 
When one fright 's gone, another doth him seize." X 

Emerson shows up the " success " of the bad 
man and the failures and trials of the good man 
in their true spiritual characters, with a noble 
scorn of the preacher's low standard of happi- 
ness and misery, which would have made him 
throw his sermon into the fire. 

The Essay on " Spiritual Laws " is full of 
pithy sayings : — 

" As much virtue as there is, so much appears ; as 
much goodness as there is, so much reverence it com- 



170 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

mands. All the devils respect virtue. — A man 
passes for that he is worth. — The ancestor of every 
% action is a thought. — To think is to act. — Let a 
y man believe in God, and not in names and places and 
persons. Let the great soul incarnated in some wo- 
man's form, poor and sad and single, in some Dolly 
or Joan, go out to service and sweep chambers and 
scour floors, and its effulgent day-beams cannot be 
hid, but to sweep and scour will instantly appear su- 
preme and beautiful actions, the top and radiance of 
human life, and all people will get mops and brooms ; 
until, lo ! suddenly the great soul has enshrined itself 
in some other form and done some other deed, and 
that is now the flower and head of all living nature." 

This is not any the worse for being the flow- 
ering out of a poetical bud of George Herbert's. 
The Essay on " Love " is poetical, but the three 
poems, " Initial," '■' Daamonic," and " Celestial 
Love " are more nearly equal to his subject than 
his prose. 

There is a passage in the Lecture on " Friend- 
ship " which suggests some personal relation of 
Emerson's about which we cannot help being 
inquisitive : — 

" It has seemed to me lately more possible than I 

knew, to carry a friendship greatly, on one side, 

without due correspondence on the other. Why 

r should I cumber myself with regrets that the receiver 

is not capacious ? It never troubles the sun that 



"PRUDENCE." 171 

some of his rays fall wide and vain into ungrateful 
space, and only a small part on the reflecting planet. 
Let your greatness educate the crude and cold com- 
panion. . . . Yet these things may hardly be said 
without a sort of treachery to the relation. The 
essence of friendship is entireness, a total magnanim- 
ity and trust. It must not surmise or provide for in- 
firmity. It treats its object as a god that it may 
deify both." 

Was he thinking of his relations with Car- 
lyle? It is a curious subject of speculation 
what would have been the issue if Carlyle had 
come to Concord and taken up his abode under 
Emerson's most hospitable roof. " You shall 
not come nearer a man by getting into his 
house." How could they have got on together ? 
Emerson was well-bred, and Carlyle was wanting 
in the social graces. " Come rest in this bo- 
som " is a sweet air, heard in the distance, too 
apt to be followed, after a protracted season of 
close proximity, by that other strain, — 

" No, fly me, fly me, far as pole from pole ! 
Rise Alps between us and whole oceans roll ! " 

But Emerson may have been thinking of 
some very different person, perhaps some " crude 
and cold companion" among his disciples, who 
was not equal to the demands of friendly inter- 
course. 

He discourses wisely on " Prudence," a virtue 



172 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

which he does not claim for himself, and nobly 
on " Heroism," which was a shining part of his 
own moral and intellectual being. 

The points which will be most likely to draw 
the reader's attention are the remarks on the 
literature of heroism; the claim for our own 
America, for Massachusetts and Connecticut 
River and Boston Bay, in spite of our love for 
the names of foreign and classic topography ; 
and most of all one sentence which, coming from 
an optimist like Emerson, has a sound of sad 
sincerity painful to recognize. 

" Who that sees the meanness of our politics but 
^ /inly congratulates Washington that he is long already 
wrapped in his shroud, and forever safe ; that he was 
laid sweet in his grave, the hope of humanity not yet 
subjugated in him. Who does not sometimes envy 
the good and brave who are no more to suffer from 
the tumults of the natural world, and await with curi- 
ous complacency the speedy term of his own conver- 
sation with finite nature ? And yet the love that will 
be annihilated sooner than treacherous has already* 
made death impossible, and affirms itself no mortal, 
but a native of the deeps of absolute and inextinguish- 
able being." 

In the following Essay, " The Over-Soul," Em- 
erson has attempted the impossible. He is as 
fully conscious of this fact as the reader of his 
rhapsody, — nay, he is more profoundly pene- 



" THE OVER-SOUL." 173 

trated with it than any of his readers. In 
speaking of the exalted condition the soul is 
caj)able of reaching, he says, — 

" Every man's words, who speaks from that life, 
must sound vain to those who do not dwell in the 
same thought on their own part. I dare not speak 
for it. My words do not carry its august sense; 
they fall short and cold. Only itself can inspire 
whom it will, and behold ! their speech shall be lyrical 
and sweet, and universal as the rising of the wind. 
Yet I desire, even by profane words, if I may not 
use sacred, to indicate the heaven of this deity, and to 
report what hints I have collected of the transcendent 
simplicity and energy of the Highest Law." 

" The Over-Soul " might almost be called the 
Over-flow of a spiritual imagination. We can- 
not help thinking of the " pious, virtuous, God- 
intoxicated " Spinoza. When one talks of the 
infinite in terms borrowed from the finite, when 
one attempts to deal with the absolute in the 
language of the relative, his words are not sym- 
bols, like those applied to the objects of expe- 
rience, but the shadows of symbols, varying with 
the position and intensity of the light of the 
individual intelligence. It is a curious amuse- 
ment to trace many of these thoughts and ex- 
pressions to Plato, or Plotinus, or Proclus, or 
Porphyry, to Spinoza or Schelling, but the same 
tune is a different thing according to the instru- 



174 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

ment on which it is played. There are songs 
without words, and there are states in which, in 
place of the trains of thought moving in endless 
procession with ever-varying figures along the 
highway of consciousness, the soul is possessed 
by a single all-absorbing idea, which, in the 
highest state of spiritual exaltation, becomes a 
vision. Both Plotinus and Porphyry believed 
they were privileged to look upon Him whom 
" no man can see and live." 

But Emerson states his own position so frankly 
in his Essay entitled " Circles," that the reader 
cannot take issue with him as against utterances 
which he will not defend. There can be no doubt 
that he would have confessed as much with ref- 
erence to "The Over-Soul" as he has confessed 
with regard to " Circles," the Essay which fol- 
lows " The Over-Soul." 

" I am not careful to justify myself. . . . But lest 
I should mislead any when I have my own head and 
obey my whims, let me remind the reader that I am 
only an experimenter. Do not set the least value on 
what I do, or the least discredit on what I do not, as 
if I pretended to settle anything as true or false. I 
unsettle all things. No facts are to me sacred ; none 
are profane ; I simply experiment, an endless seeker, 
with no Past at my back." 

Perhaps, after reading these transcendental 
essays of Emerson, we might borrow Goethe's 



" cm cles: ' — " intellect: > — "abt." 175 

language about Spinoza, as expressing the feel- 
ing with which we are left. 

" I am reading Spinoza with Fran von Stem. I 
feel myself very near to him, though his soul is much 
deeper and purer than mine. 

" I cannot say that I ever read Spinoza straight 
through, that at any time the complete architecture 
of his intellectual system has stood clear in view be- 
fore me. But when I look into him I seem to under- 
stand him, — that is, he always appears to me con- 
sistent with himself, and I can always gather from 
him very salutary influences for my own way of 
feeling and acting." 

Emerson would not have pretended that he 
was always " consistent with himself," but these 
" salutary influences," restoring, enkindling, vivi- 
fying, are felt by many of his readers who would 
have to confess, like Dr. Walter Channing, that 
these thoughts, or thoughts like these, as he 
listened to them in a lecture, " made his head 
ache." 

The three essays which follow " The Over- 
Soul," "Circles," "Intellect," " Art," would fur- 
nish us a harvest of good sayings, some of which 
we should recognize as parts of our own (bor- 
rowed) axiomatic wisdom. 

" Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker </ < 
on this planet. Then all things are at risk." 

" God enters by a private door into every indi- 
vidual." 



176 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

" God offers to every mind its choice between truth 
> and repose. Take which you please, — you can never 
have both." 

" Though we travel the world over to find the 
beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it 
not." 

But we cannot reconstruct the Hanging Gar- 
dens with a few bricks from Babylon. 

Emerson describes his mode of life in these 
years in a letter to Carlyle, dated May 10, 
1838. 

" I occupy, or improve, as we Yankees say, two 
acres only of God's earth ; on which is my house, my 
kitchen-garden, my orchard of thirty young trees, 
my empty barn. My house is now a very good one 
for comfort, and abounding in room. Besides my 
house, I have, I believe, $22,000, whose income in 
ordinary years is six per cent. I have no other tithe 
or glebe except the income of my winter lectures, 
which was last winter $800. Well, with this income, 
here at home, I am a rich man. I stay at home and 
go abroad at my own instance. I have food, warmth, 
leisure, books, friends. Go away from home, I am 
rich no longer. I never have a dollar to spend on a 
fancy. As no wise man, I suppose, ever was rich in 
the sense of freedom to spend, because of the inun- 
dation of claims, so neither am I, who am not wise. 
But at home, I am rich, — rich enough for ten 
brothers. My wife Lidian is an incarnation of Chris- 
tianity, — I call her Asia, — and keeps my philosophy 



DEATH OF EMERSON'S SON. 177 

from Antinomianism ; my mother, whitest, mildest, 
most conservative of ladies, whose only exception to 
her universal preference for old things is her son ; 
my boy, a piece of love and sunshine, well worth my 
watching from morning to night ; — these, and three 
domestic women, who cook, and sew and run for us, 
make all my household. Here I sit and read and 
write, with very little system, and, as far as re- 
gards composition, with the most fragmentary result : 
paragraphs incompressible, each sentence an infinitely 
repellent particle." 

A great sorrow visited Emerson and his house- 
hold at this period of his life. On the 30th 
of October, 1841, he wrote to Carlyle : " My 
little boy is five years old to-day, and almost old 
enough to send you his love." 

Three months later, on the 28th of February, 
1842, he writes once more : — 

" My dear friend, you should have had this letter 
and these messages by the last steamer ; but when it 
sailed, my son, a perfect little boy of five years and 
three months, had ended his earthly life. You can 
never sympathize with me ; you can never know how 
much of me such a young child can take away. A 
few weeks ago I accounted myself a very rich man, 
and now the poorest of all. What would it avail to 
tell you anecdotes of a sweet and wonderful boy, such 
as we solace and sadden ourselves with at home every 
morning and evening? From a perfect health and 
as happy a fife and as happy influences as ever child 
12 



178 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

enjoyed, he was hurried out of my arms in three short 
days by scarlatina. We have two babes yet, one girl 
of three years, and one girl of three months and 
a week, but a promise like that Boy's I shall never 
see. How often I have pleased myself that one day 
I should send to you this Morning Star of mine, and 
stay at home so gladly behind such a representative. 
I dare not fathom the Invisible and Untold to inquire 
what relations to my Departed ones I yet sustain." 

This was the boy whose memory lives in the 
tenderest and most pathetic of Emerson's poems, 
the " Threnody," — a lament not unworthy of 
comparison with Lycidas for dignity, but full 
of the simple pathos of Cowper's well-remem- 
bered lines on the receipt of his mother's pic- 
ture, in the place of Milton's sonorous academic 
phrases. 



CHAPTEK VI. 

1843-1848. Mi. 40-45. 

" The Young American." — Address on the Anniversary of 
the Emancipation of the Negroes in the British West In- 
dies. 1 — Publication of the Second Series of Essays. — Con- 
tents : The Poet. — Experience. — Character. — Manners. 
— Gifts. — Nature. — Politics. — Nominalist and Realist. — 
New England Reformers. — Publication of Poems. — Second 
Visit to England. 

Emerson was American in aspect, tempera- 
ment, way of thinking, and feeling; American, 
with an atmosphere of Oriental idealism ; Amer- 
ican, so far as he belonged to any limited part 
of the universe. He believed in American insti- 
tutions, he trusted the future of the American 
race. In the address first mentioned in the 
contents of this chapter, delivered February 7, 
1844, he claims for this country all that the 
most ardent patriot could ask. Not a few of his 
fellow-countrymen will feel the significance of 
the following contrast. 

"The English have many virtues, many advan- 

1 These two addresses are to be found in the first volume of 
the last collective edition of Emerson's works, " Nature, Ad- 
dresses, and Lectures." 



180 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

tages, and the proudest history in the world ; but 
they need all and more than all the resources of the 
past to indemnify a heroic gentleman in that coun- 
try for the mortifications prepared for him by the 
system of society, and which seem to impose the al- 
ternative to resist or to avoid it. . . . It is for Eng- 
lishmen to consider, not for us ; we only say, Let us 
live in America, too thankful for our want of feudal 
institutions. ... If only the men are employed in 
conspiring with the designs of the Spirit who led us 
hither, and is leading us still, we shall quickly enough 
advance out of all hearing of others' censures, out of 
all regrets of our own, into a new and more excel- 
lent social state than history has recorded." 

Thirty years have passed since the lecture 
from which these passages are taken was de- 
livered. The " Young American " of that day 
is the more than middle-aged American of the 
present. The intellectual independence of our 
country is far more solidly established than 
when this lecture was written. But the social 
alliance between certain classes of Americans 
and English is more and more closely cemented 
from year to year, as the wealth of the new world 
burrows its way among the privileged classes of 
the old world. It is a poor ambition for the 
possessor of suddenly acquired wealth to have it 
appropriated as a feeder of the impaired for- 
tunes of a deteriorated household, with a family 
record of which its representatives are unworthy. 



"TEE POET:' 181 

The plain and wholesome language o£ Emerson 
is on the whole more needed now than it was 
when spoken. His words have often been ex- 
tolled for their stimulating quality; following 
the same analogy, they are, as in this address, in 
a high degree tonic, bracing, strengthening to 
the American, who requires to be reminded of 
his privileges that he may know and find him- 
self equal to his duties. 

On the first day of August, 1844, Emerson 
delivered in Concord an address on the Anni- 
versary of the Emancipation of the Negroes in 
the British West India Islands. This discourse 
would not have satisfied the Abolitionists. It 
was too general in its propositions, full of humane 
and generous sentiments, but not looking to their 
extreme and immediate method of action. 

Emerson's second series of Essays was pub- 
lished in 1844. There are many sayings in the 
Essay called " The Poet," which are meant for 
the initiated, rather than for him who runs, to 
read : — 

" All that we call sacred history attests that the 
birth of a poet is the principal event in chronology." 

Does this sound wild and extravagant ? What 
were the political ups and downs of the Hebrews, 



182 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

— what were the squabbles of the tribes with 
each other, or with their neighbors, compared 
to the birth of that poet to whom we owe the 
Psalms, — the sweet singer whose voice is still 
the dearest of all that ever sang to the heart 
of mankind? 

The poet finds his materials everywhere, as 
Emerson tells him in this eloquent apostrophe : — 

" Thou true land-bird ! sea-bird ! air-bird ! Wher- 
ever snow falls, or water flows, or birds fly, wherever 
day and night meet in twilight, wherever the blue 
heaven is hung by clouds, or sown with stars, wher- 
ever are forms with transparent boundaries, wherever 
are outlets into celestial spaCe, wherever is danger 
and awe and love, there is Beauty, plenteous as rain, 
shed for thee, and though thou should'st walk the 
world over, thou shalt not be able to find a condition 
inopportune or ignoble." 

" Experience " is, as he says himself, but a 
fragment. It bears marks of having been writ- 
ten in a less tranquil state of mind than the 
other essays. His most important confession is 
this : — 

"All writing comes by the grace of God, and all 
doing and having. I would gladly be moral and 
keep due metes and bounds, which I dearly love, 
and allow the most to the will of man ; but I have 
set my heart on honesty in this chapter, and I can 
see nothing at last, in success or failure, than more or 
less of vital force supplied from the Eternal." 



' ' CHARACTER. " — " MANNER® » 183 

The Essay on ^'Character " requires no diffi- 
cult study, but is well worth the trouble of read- 
ing. A few sentences from it show the prevail- 
ing tone and doctrine. 

" Character is Nature in the highest form. It is 
of no use to ape it, or to contend with it. Somewhat 
is possible of resistance and of persistence and of 
creation to this power, which will foil all emulation." 

" There is a class of men, individuals of which ap- 
pear at long intervals, so eminently endowed with in- 
sight and virtue, that they have been unanimously 
saluted as divine, and who seem to be an accumula- 
tion of that power we consider. 

" The history of those gods and saints which the 
world has written, and then worshipped, are doc- 
uments of character. The ages have exulted in the 
manners of a youth who owed nothing to fortune, and 
who was hanged at the Tyburn of his nation, who, 
by the pure quality of his nature, shed an epic splen- 
dor around the facts of his death which has trans- 
figured every particular into an universal symbol for 
the eyes of mankind. This great defeat is hitherto 
our highest fact." 

In his Essay on " Manners," Emerson gives 
us his ideas of a gentleman : — 

" The gentleman is a man of truth, lord of his own 
actions and expressing that lordship in his behavior, 
not in any manner dependent and servile either on 
persons or opinions or possessions. Beyond this fact 






184 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

of truth and real force, the word denotes good-nature 
or benevolence : manhood first, and then gentleness. 
— Power first, or no leading class. — God knows that 
all sorts of gentlemen knock at the door : but when- 
ever used in strictness, and with any emphasis, the 
name will be found to point at original energy. — 
The famous gentlemen of Europe have been of this 
strong type : Saladin, Sapor, the Cid, Julius Caesar, 
Scipio, Alexander, Pericles, and the lordliest person- 
ages. They sat very carelessly in their chairs, and 
were too excellent themselves to value any condition 
at a high rate. — I could better eat with one who 
did not respect the truth or the laws than with a 
sloven and unpresentable person. — The person who 
screams, or uses the superlative degree, or converses 
with heat, puts whole drawing-rooms to flight. — I 
esteem it a chief felicity of this country that it excels 
in woman." 

So writes Emerson, and proceeds to speak o£ 
woman in language which seems almost to pant 
for rhythm and rhyme. 

This essay is plain enough for the least " tran- 
scendental " reader. Franklin would have ap- 
proved it, and was himself a happy illustration 
of many of the qualities which go to the Emer- 
sonian ideal of good manners, a typical Amer- 
ican, equal to his position, always as much so in 
the palaces and salons of Paris as in the Conti- 
nental Congress, or the society of Philadelphia. 

" Gifts " is a dainty little Essay with sonwnice 



" GIFTS." — " NATURE." 185 

distinctions and some hints which may help to 
give form to a generous impulse : — 

" The only gift is a portion of thyself. Thou must 

bleed for me. Therefore the poet brings his poem ; 

S\ the shepherd, his lamb ; the farmer, corn ; the miner, 

a gem ; the sailor, coral and shells ; the painter, his 

picture ; the girl, a handkerchief of her own sewing." 

" Flowers and fruits are always fit presents ; flow- 
ers, because they are a proud assertion that a ray 
of beauty outvalues all the utilities of the world. — 
Fruits are acceptable gifts, because they are the flower 
of commodities, and admit of fantastic values being 
attached to them." 

" It is a great happiness to get off without injury 
and heart-burning from one who has had the ill-luck 
to be served by you. It is a very onerous business, 
this of being served, and the debtor naturally wishes 
to give you a slap." 

Emerson hates the superlative, but he does 
unquestionably love the tingling effect of a witty 
over-statement. 

We have recognized most of the thoughts in 
the Essay entitled " Nature," in the previous 
Essay by the same name, and others which we 
have passed in review. But there are poetical 
passages which will give new pleasure. 

Here is a variation of the formula with which 
we are familiar : — 



/ 



186 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

" Nature is the incarnation of {a} thought, and turns 
to a thought again, as ice becomes water and gas. 
The world is mind precipitated, and the volatile es- 
sence is forever escaping again into the state of free 
thought." 

And here is a quaint sentence with which we 
may take leave of this Essay : — 

" They say that by electro-magnetism, your salad 
shall be grown from the seed, whilst your fowl is 
roasting for dinner : it is a symbol of our modern 
aims and endeavors, — of our condensation and ac- 
celeration of objects ; but nothing is gained : nature 
cannot be cheated : man's life is but seventy salads 
long, grow they swift or grow they slow." 

This is pretty and pleasant, but as to the literal 
value of the prediction, M. Jules Verne would be 
the best authority to consult. Poets are fond of 
that branch of science which, if the imaginative 
Frenchman gave it a name, he would probably 
call Onditologie. 

It is not to be supposed that the most sanguine 
optimist could be satisfied with the condition of 
the American political world at the present time, 
or when the Essay on " Politics " was written, 
some years before the great war which changed 
the aspects of the country in so many respects, still 
leaving the same party names, and many of the 
characters of the old parties unchanged. This 
is Emerson's view of them as they then were : — 



"POLITICS." 187 

" Of the two great parties, which, at this hour, al- 
most share the nation between them, I should say 
that one has the best cause, and the other contains) <•*■ 
the best men. The philosopher, the poet, or the 
religious man, will, of course, wish to cast his vote~ 
with the democrat, for free trade, for wide suffrage, 
for the abolition of legal cruelties in the penal code, 
and for facilitating in every manner the access of the 
young and the poor to the sources of wealth and 
power. But he can rarely accept the persons whom 
the so-called popular party propose to him as rep- 
resentatives of these liberties. They have not at 
heart the ends which give to the name of democracy 
what hope and virtue are in it. The spirit of our 
American radicalism is destructive and aimless ; it is 
not loving ; it has no ulterior and divine ends ; but 
is destructive only out of hatred and selfishness. On ^^ 
the other side, the conservative party, composed of , S* « 
the most moderate, able, and cultivated part of the \ " 
population, is timid, and merely defensive of property. 
It indicates no right, it aspires to no real good, it 
brands no crime, it proposes no generous policy, it 
does not build nor write, nor cherish the arts, nor 
foster religion, nor establish schools, nor encourage 
science, nor emancipate the slave, nor befriend the 
poor, or the Indian, or the immigrant. From neither 
party, when in power, has the world any benefit to 
expect in science, art, or humanity, at all commen- 
surate with the resources of the nation." 

The metaphysician who looks for a closely 



188 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

reasoned argument on the famous old question 
which so divided the schoolmen of old will find 
a very moderate satisfaction in the Essay enti- 
tled "Nominalism and Realism." But there are 
many discursive remarks in it worth gathering 
and considering. We have the complaint of the 
Cambridge " Phi Beta Kappa Oration," reit- 
erated, that there is no complete man, but only a 
collection of fragmentary men. 

As a Platonist and a poet there could not be 
any doubt on which side were all his prejudices; 
but he takes his ground cautiously. 

" In the famous dispute with the Nominalists, the 
Realists had a good deal of reason. General ideas are 
essences. They are our gods : they round and enno- 
ble the most practical and sordid way of living. 

" Though the uninspired man certainly finds per- 
sons a conveniency in household matters, the divine 
man does not respect them : he sees them as a rack of 
clouds, or a fleet of ripples which the wind drives over 
the surface of the water. But this is flat rebellion. 
Nature will not be Buddhist : she resents general- 
izing, and insults the philosopher in every moment 
with a million of fresh particulars." 

Mew England Reformers. — Would any one 
venture to guess how Emerson would treat this 
subject? With his unsparing, though amiable 
radicalism, his excellent common sense, liis deli- 
cate appreciation of the ridiculous, too deep for 



NEW ENGLAND BEFOBMEBS. 189 

laughter, as Wordsworth's thoughts were too 
deep for tears, in the midst of a band of en- 
thusiasts and not very remote from a throng of 
fanatics, what are we to look for from our philos- 
opher who unites many characteristics of Berke- 
ley and of Franklin ? 

We must remember when this lecture was 
written, for it was delivered on a Sunday in the 
year 1844. The Br<3ok Farm experiment was an 
index of the state of mind among one section of 
the Reformers of whom he was writing. To re- 
model society and the world into a "happy 
family " was the aim of these enthusiasts. Some 
attacked one part of the old system, some an- 
other ; some would build a new temple, some 
would rebuild the old church, some would wor- 
ship in the fields and woods, if at all ; one was 
for "a phalanstery, where all should live in com- 
mon, and another was meditating the plan and 
place of the wigwam where he was to dwell apart 
in the proud independence of the woodchuck and 
the musquash. Emerson had the largest and 
kindliest sympathy with their ideals and aims, 
but he was too clear-eyed not to see through 
the whims and extravagances of the unpractical 
experimenters who would construct a working 
world with the lay figures they had put together, 
instead of flesh and blood men and women and 
children with all their congenital and acquired 



190 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

perversities. He describes these Eeformers in 
his own good-naturedly half- satirical way : — 

" They defied each other like a congress of kings, 
each of whom had a realm to rule, and a way of his 
own that made concert unprofitable. What a fertility 
of projects for the salvation of the world ! One 
apostle thought all men should go to farming ; and 
another that no man should buy or sell ; that the use 
of money was the cardinal evil ; another that the 
mischief was in our diet, that we eat and drink dam- 
nation. These made unleavened bread, and were 
foes to the death to fermentation. It was in vain 
urged by the housewife that God made yeast as well 
as dough, and loves fermentation just as dearly as he 
does vegetation; that fermentation develops the sac- 
charine element in the grain, and makes it more pal- 
atable and more digestible. No, they wish the pure 
wheat, and will die but it shall not ferment. Stop, 
dear nature, these innocent advances of thine ; let us 
scotch these ever-rolling wheels ! Others attacked the 
system of agriculture, the use of animal manures in 
farming ; and the tyranny of man over brute nature ; 
these abuses polluted his food. The ox must be 
taken from the plough, and the horse from the cart, 
the hundred acres of the farm must be spaded, and 
the man must walk wherever boats and locomotives 
will not carry him. Even the insect world was to be 
defended, — that had been too long neglected, and a 
society for the protection of ground-worms, slugs, and 
mosquitoes was to be incorporated without delay. With 
these appeared the adepts of homoeopathy, of hydrop- 



NEW ENGLAND REFORMERS. 191 

athy, of mesmerism, of phrenology, and their wonder- 
ful theories of the Christian miracles ! " 

We have already seen the issue of the famous 
Brook Farm experiment, which was a practical 
outcome of the reforming agitation. 

Emerson has had the name of being a leader 
in many movements in which he had very limited 
confidence, this among others to which the ideal- 
izing impulse derived from him lent its force, but 
for the organization of which he was in no sense 
responsible. 

He says in the lecture we are considering : — 

" These new associations are composed of men and 
women of superior talents and sentiments ; yet it may 
easily be questioned whether such a community will 
draw, except in its beginnings, the able and the good; 
whether these who have energy will not prefer their 
choice of superiority and power in the world to the 
humble certainties of the association ; whether such a 
retreat does not promise to become an asylum to those 
who have tried and failed rather than a field to the 
strong ; and whether the members will not necessarily 
be fractions of men, because each finds that he cannot 
enter into it without some compromise." 

His sympathies were not allowed to mislead 
him ; he knew human nature too well to believe 
in a Noah's ark full of idealists. 

All this time he was lecturing for his support, 
giving courses of lectures in Boston and other 



192 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

cities, and before the country lyceums in and 
out of New England. 

His letters to Carlyle show how painstaking, 
how methodical, how punctual he was in the busi- 
ness which interested his distant friend. He was 
not fond of figures, and it must have cost him a 
great effort to play the part of an accountant. 

He speaks also of receiving a good deal of 
company in the summer, and that some of this 
company exacted much time and attention, — 
more than he could spare, — is made evident by 
his gentle complaints, especially in his poems, 
which sometimes let out a truth he would hardly 
have uttered in prose. 

In 1846 Emerson's first volume of poems was 
published. Many of the poems had been long 
before the public — some of the oest, as we have 
seen, having been printed in " The Dial." It is 
only their being brought together for the first 
time which belongs especially to this period, and 
we can leave them for the present, to be looked 
over by and by in connection with a second 
volume of poems published in 1867, under the 
title, " May-Day and other Pieces."; 



In October, 1847, he left Concord on a second 
visit to England, which will be spoken of in the 
following chapter. 



CHAPTER VII. 

1848-1853. Mt. 45-50. 

The " Massachusetts Quarterly Review ; " Visit to Europe. — 
England. — Scotland. — France. — " Representative Men " 
published. I. Lives of Great Men. II. Plato ; or, the Phi- 
losopher ; Plato ; New Readings. III. Swedenborg ; or, the 
Mystic. IV. Montaigne; or, the Skeptic. V. Shake- 
speare ; or, the Poet. VI. Napoleon ; or, the Man of the 
World. VII. Goethe ; or, the Writer. — Contribution to 
the " Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli." ' 

A new periodical publication was begun in 
Boston in 1847, under the name of the " Mas- 
sachusetts Quarterly Review." Emerson wrote 
the " Editor's S.ddress," but took no further ac- 
tive part in it, Theodore Parker being the real 
editor. The last line of this address is charac- 
teristic : "We rely on the truth for aid against 
ourselves." 

On the 5th of October, 1847, Emerson sailed 
for Europe on his second visit, reaching Liver- 
pool on the 2 2d of that month. Many of his 
admirers were desirous that he should visit Eng- 
land and deliver some courses of lectures. Mr. 
Alexander Ireland, who had paid him friendly 
attentions during his earlier visit, and whose im- 

13 



194 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

pressions of him in the pulpit have been given 
on a previous page, urged his coming. Mr. 
Conway quotes passages from a letter of Emer- 
son's which show that he had some hesitation 
in accepting the invitation, not unmingled with 
a wish to be heard by the English audiences 
favorably disposed towards him. 

" I feel no call," he said, " to make a visit of 
literary propagandism in England. All my im- 
pulses to work of that kind would rather employ 
me at home." He does not like the idea of 
"coaxing" or advertising to get him an audience. 
He would like to read lectures before institutions 
or friendly persons who sympathize with his 
studies. He has had a good many decisive tokens 
of interest from British men and women, but he 
doubts whether l^e is much and favorably known 
in any one city, except perhaps in London. It 
proved, however, that there was a very wide- 
spread desire to hear him, and applications for 
lectures flowed in from all parts of the king- 
dom. 

From Liverpool he proceeded immediately to 
Manchester, where Mr. Ireland received him at 
the Victoria station. After spending a few hours 
with him, he went to Chelsea to visit Carlyle, 
and at the end of a week returned to Manches- 
ter to begin the series of lecturing engagements 
which had been arranged for him. Mr. Ireland's 



ENGLAND. — SCOTLAND. 195 

account of Emerson's visits and the interviews 
between him and many distinguished persons is 
full of interest, but the interest largely relates 
to the persons visited by Emerson. He lectured 
at Edinburgh, where his liberal way of thinking 
and talking made a great sensation in orthodox 
circles. But he did not fail to find enthusiastic 
listeners. A young student, Mr. George Cupples, 
wrote an article on these lectures from which, as 
quoted by Mr. Ireland, I borrow a single sen- 
tence, — one only, but what could a critic say 
more? 

Speaking of his personal character, as revealed 
through his writings, he says : " In this respect, 
I take leave to think that Emerson is the most 
mark-worthy, the loftiest, and most heroic mere 
man that ever appeared." Emerson has a lec- 
ture on the superlative, to which he himself was 
never addicted. But what would youth be with- 
out its extravagances, — its preterpluperf ect in 
the shape of adjectives, its unmeasured and un- 
stinted admiration? 

I need not enumerate the celebrated literary 
personages and other notabilities whom Emerson 
met in England and Scotland. He thought "the 
two finest mannered literary men he met in 
England were Leigh Hunt and De Quincey." 
His diary might tell us more of the impressions 
made upon him by the distinguished people he 



196 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

met, but it is impossible to believe that he ever 
passed such inhuman judgments on the least 
desirable of his new acquaintances as his friend 
Carlyle has left as a bitter legacy behind him. 
Carlyle's merciless discourse about Coleridge 
and Charles Lamb, and Swinburne's carnivorous 
lines, which take a barbarous vengeance on him 
for his offence, are on the level of political rhet- 
oric rather than of scholarly criticism or charac- 
terization. Emerson never forgot that he was 
dealing with human beings. He could not have 
long endured the asperities of Carlyle, and that 
" loud shout of laughter," which Mr. Ireland 
speaks of as one of his customary explosions, 
would have been discordant to Emerson's ears, 
which were offended by such noisy manifesta- 
tions. 

During this visit Emerson made an excursion 
to Paris, which furnished him materials for a 
lecture on France delivered in Boston, in 1856, 
but never printed. 

From the lectures delivered in England he se- 
lected a certain number for publication. These 
make up the volume entitled " Representative 
Men," which was published in 1850. I will 
give very briefly an account of its contents. The 
title was a happy one, and has passed into liter- 
ature and conversation as an accepted and con- 
venient phrase. It would teach us a good deal 



PLATO. 197 

merely to consider the names he has selected as 
typical, and the ground of their selection. We 
get his classification of men considered as lead- 
ers in thought and in action. He shows his own 
affinities and repulsions, and, as everywhere, 
writes his own biography, no matter about whom 
or what he is talking. There is hardly any book 
of his better worth study by those who wish to 
understand, not Plato, not Plutarch, not Napo- • 
leon, but Emerson himself. All his great men 
interest us for their own sake ; but we know a 
good deal about most of them, and Emerson 
holds the mirror up to them at just such an 
angle that we see his own face as well as that 
of his hero, unintentionally, unconsciously, no 
doubt, but by a necessity which he would be the 
first to recognize. 

Emerson swears by no master. He admires, 
but always with a reservation. Plato comes near- 
est to being his idol, Shakespeare next. But he 
says of all great men : " The power which they N 
communicate is not theirs. When we are exalted 
by ideas, we do not owe this to Plato, but to the r* s 
idea, to which also Plato was debtor." 

Emerson loves power as much as Carlyle 
does; he likes _" rough and smooth," "scourges 
of God," and "darlings of the human race." 
He likes Julius Caesar, Charles the Fifth, of 
Spain, Charles the Twelfth, of Sweden, Bichard 
Plantagenet, and Bonaparte. 



198 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

" I applaud," he says, " a sufficient man, an officer 
equal to his office ; captains, ministers, senators. I 
like a master standing firm on legs of iron, well born, 
rich, handsome, . eloquent, loaded with advantages, 
drawing all men by fascination into tributaries and 
supporters of his power. Sword and staff, or talents 
sword-like or staff-like, carry on the work of the 
world. But I find him greater when he can abolish 
himself and all heroes by letting in this element of 
reason, irrespective of persons, this subtilizer and 
irresistible upward force, into our thoughts, destroy- 
ing individualism ; the power is so great that the po- 
tentate is nothing. — 

" The genius of humanity is the right point of view 
of history. The qualities abide ; the men who exhibit 
them have now more, now less, and pass away ; the 
qualities remain on another brow. — All that respects 
the individual is temporary and prospective, like the 
individual himself, who is ascending out of his limits 
into a catholic existence." 

No man can be an idol for one who looks in 
this way at all men. But Plato takes the first 
place in Emerson's gallery of six great person- 
ages whose portraits he has sketched. And of 
him he says : — 

"Among secular books Plato only is entitled to 

Omar's fanatical compliment to the Koran, when he 

said, i Burn the libraries ; for their value is in this 

book.' Out of Plato come all things that are still 

? written and debated among men of thought." — 



PLATO. 199 

" In proportion to the culture of men they become 
his scholars." — " How many great men Nature is 
incessantly sending up out of night to be his men ! — 
His contemporaries tax him with plagiarism. — But 
the inventor only knows how to borrow. When we 
are praising Plato, it seems we are praising quotations 
from Solon and Sophron and Philolaus. Be it so. 
Every book is a quotation ; and every house is a quo- 
tation out of all forests and mines and stone quarries ; 
and every man is a quotation from all his ancestors." 

The reader will, I hope, remember this last 
general statement when he learns from what 
wide fields of authorship Emerson filled his 
storehouses. 

A few sentences from Emerson will show 
us the probable source of some of the deepest 
thought of Plato and his disciples. 

The conception of the fundamental Unity, he 
says, finds its highest expression in the religious 
writings of the East, especially in the Indian 
Scriptures. "'The whole world is but a man- 
ifestation of Vishnu, who is identical with all 
things, and is to be regarded by the wise as not 
differing from but as the same as themselves. I 
neither am going nor coming; nor is my dwell- 
ing in any one place ; nor art thou, thou ; nor are 
others, others ; nor am I, ,1/ As if he had said, 
4 All is for the soul, and the soul is Vishnu ; and 
animals and stars are transient paintings; and 



200 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

light is whitewash ; and durations are deceptive ; 
and form is imprisonment ; and heaven itself a 
decoy.' " All of which we see reproduced in 
Emerson's poem "Brahma." — "The country of 
unity, of immovable institutions, the seat of a 
philosophy delighting in abstractions, of men 
faithful in doctrine and in practice to the idea 
of a deaf, unimplorable, immense fate, is Asia ; 
and it realizes this faith in the social institution 
of caste. On the other side, the genius of Europe 
is active and creative : it resists caste bv culture ; 
its philosophy was a discipline ; it is a land of 
arts, inventions, trade, freedom." — " Plato came 
to join, and by contact to enhance, the energy of 
each." 

But Emerson says, — and some will smile at 
hearing him say it of another, — " The acutest 
German, the lovingest disciple, could never tell 
what Platonism was ; indeed, admirable texts can 
be quoted on both sides of every great question 
from him." 

The transcendent intellectual and moral supe- 
riorities of this " Euclid of holiness," as Emerson 
calls him, with his " soliform eye and his boni- 
form soul," — the two quaint adjectives being 
from the mint of Cud worth, — are fully dilated 
upon in the addition to the original article called 
" Plato : New Readings." 



SWEDENBORG. 201 

Few readers will be satisfied with tlie Essay 
entitled "Swedenborg; or, the Mystic." The 
believers in his special communion as a revealer 
of divine truth will find him reduced to the level 
of other seers. The believers of the different 
creeds of Christianity will take offence at the 
statement that " Swedenborg and Behmen both 
failed by attaching themselves to the Christian 
symbol, instead of to the moral sentiment, which 
carries innumerable Christianities, humanities, di- 
vinities in its bosom." The men of science will 
smile at the exorbitant claims put forward in 
behalf of Swedenborg as a scientific discoverer. 
" Philosophers " will not be pleased to be re- 
minded that Swedenborg called them "cocka- 
trices," " asps," or "flying serpents ; " "literary 
men " will not agree that they are " conjurers 
and charlatans," and will not listen with patience 
to the praises of a man who so called them. As 
for the poets, they can take their choice of 
Emerson's poetical or prose estimate of the great 
Mystic, but they cannot very well accept both. 
In " The Test," the Muse savs : — 

" I hung my verses in the wind, 
Time and tide their faults may find ; 
All were winnowed through and through, 
Five lines lasted good and true . . . 
Sunshine cannot bleach the snow, 
Nor time unmake what poets know. 



202 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

Have you eyes to find the five 
Who five hundred did survive ? " 

In the verses which follow we learn that the 
five immortal poets referred to are Homer, Dante, 
Shakespeare, Swedenborg, and Goethe. 

And now, in the Essay we have just been look- 
ing at, I find that " his books have no melody, 
no emotion, no humor, no relief to the dead pro- 
saic level. We wander forlorn in a lack-lustre 
landscape. No bird ever sang in these gardens 
of the dead. The entire want of poetry in so 
transcendent a mind betokens the disease, and 
like a hoarse voice in a beautiful person, is 
a kind of warning." Yet Emerson says of him 
that " He lived to purpose : he gave a verdict. 
He elected goodness as the clue to which the soul 
must cling in this labyrinth of nature." 

Emerson seems to have admired Swedenborg 
at a distance, but seen nearer, he liked Jacob 
Behmen a great deal better. 

" Montaigne ; or, the Skeptic," is easier read- 
ing than the last-mentioned Essay. Emerson ac- 
counts for the personal regard which he has for 
Montaigne by the story of his first acquaintance 
with him. But no other reason was needed 
than that Montaigne was just what Emerson de- 
scribes him as being. 

" There have been men with deeper insight ; but, 



MONTAIGNE. 203 

one would say, never a man with such abundance of 
thought : he is never dull, never insincere, and has the 
genius to make the reader care for all that he cares 
for. 

" The sincerity and marrow of the man reaches to 
his sentences. I know not anywhere the book that 
seems less written. It is the language of conversation 
transferred to a book. Cut these words and they 
would bleed ; they are vascular and alive. — 

" Montaigne talks with shrewdness, knows the world 
and books and himself, and uses the positive degree ; 
never shrieks, or protests, or prays : no weakness, no 
convulsion, no superlative : does not wish to jump out 
of his skin, or play any antics, or annihilate space or 
time, but is stout and solid ; tastes every moment of 
the day ; likes pain because it makes him feel himself 
and realize things ; as we pinch ourselves to know 
that we are awake. He keeps the plain ; he rarely 
mounts or sinks ; likes to feel solid ground and the 
stones underneath. His writing has no enthusiasms, 
no aspiration ; contented, self-respecting, and keeping 

> the middle of the road. There is but one exception, 
— in his love for Socrates. In speaking of him, for 
once his cheek flushes and his style rises to passion." 

The writer who draws this portrait must have 
many of the same characteristics. Much as Em- 
erson loved his dreams and his dreamers, he 
must have found a great relief in getting into 

> "the middle of the road " with Montaigne, after 
wandering in difficult by-paths which too often 



204 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

led him round to the point from which he 
started. 

As to his exposition of the true relations of 
skepticism to affirmative and negative belief, the 
philosophical reader must be referred to the 
Essay itself. 

In writing of " Shakespeare ; or, the Poet," 
Emerson naturally gives expression to his lead- 
ing ideas about the office of the poet and of 
poetry. 

" Great men are more distinguished by range 
and extent than by originality." A poet has 
" a heart in unison with his time and country." 
— " There is nothing whimsical and fantastic 
in his production, but sweet and sad earnest, 
freighted with the weightiest convictions, and 
pointed with the most determined aim which 
any man or class knows of in his times." 

When Shakespeare was in his youth the drama 
was the popular means of amusement. It was 
" ballad, epic, newspaper, caucus, lecture, Punch, 
and library, at the same time. The best proof 
of its vitality is the crowd of writers which sud- 
denly broke into this field." Shakespeare found 
a great mass of old plays existing in manuscript 
and reproduced from time to time on the stage. 
He borrowed in all directions : " A great poet 
who appears in illiterate times absorbs into his 



SHAKESPEARE, 205 

sphere all the light which is anywhere radiat- 
ing." Homer, Chaucer, Saadi, felt that all wit 
was their wit. " Chaucer is a huge borrower." 
Emerson gives a list of authors from whom he 
drew. This list is in many particulars erroneous, 
as I have learned from a letter of Professor 
Lounsbury's which I have had the privilege of 
reading, but this is a detail which need not de- 
lay us. 

The reason why Emerson has so much to say 
on this subject of borrowing, especially when 
treating of Plato and of Shakespeare, is obvious 
enough. He was arguing in his own cause, — 
not defending himself, as if there were some 
charge of plagiarism to be met, but making the 
proud claim of eminent domain in behalf of the 
masters who knew how to use their acquisitions. 

" Shakespeare is the only biographer of Shake- 
speare ; and even he can tell nothing except to the 
Shakespeare in us." — " Shakespeare is as much out 
of the category of eminent authors as he is out of the 
crowd. A good reader can in a sort nestle into 
Plato's brain and think from thence ; but not into 
Shakespeare's. We are still out of doors." 

After all the homage which Emerson pays to 
the intellect of Shakespeare, he weighs him with 
the rest of mankind, and finds that he shares 
" the halfness and imperfection of humanity." 

" He converted the elements which waited on his 



206 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

command into entertainment. He was master of the 
revels to mankind." 

And so, after this solemn verdict on Shake- 
speare, after looking at the forlorn conclusions of 
our old and modern oracles, priest and prophet, 
Israelite, German, and Swede, he says : " It must 
be conceded that these are half views of half 
men. The world still wants its poet-priest, who 
shall not trifle with Shakespeare the player, nor 
shall grope in graves with Swedenborg the 
mourner ; but who shall see, speak, and act with 
equal inspiration." 

It is not to be expected that Emerson should 
have much that is new to say about " Napoleon ; 
or, the Man of the World." 

The stepping-stones of this Essay are easy to 
find: — 

" The instinct of brave, active, able men, through- 
out the middle class everywhere, has pointed out 
Napoleon as the incarnate democrat. — 

" Napoleon is thoroughly modern, and at the high- 
est point of his fortunes, has the very spirit of the 
newspapers." As Plato borrowed, as Shakespeare bor- 
rowed, as Mirabeau " plagiarized every good thought, 
every good word that was spoken in France," so Napo- 
leon is not merely " representative, but a monopolizer 
and usurper of other minds." 

He was " a man of stone and iron," — equipped 



NAPOLEON. 207 

for his work by nature as Sallust describes Cati- 
line as being. " He had a directness of action 
never before combined with such comprehension. 
Here was a man who in each moment and emer- 
gency knew what to do next. He saw only the 
object ; the obstacle must give way." 

" When a natural king becomes a titular king 
everybody is pleased and satisfied." — 

" I call Napoleon the agent or attorney of the 
middle class of modern society. — He was the 
agitator, the destroyer of prescription, the in- 
ternal improver, the liberal, the radical, the 
inventor of means, the opener of doors and mar- 
kets, the subverter of monopoly and abuse." 

But he was without generous sentiments, "a ^< 
boundless liar," and finishing in high colors the 
outline of his moral deformities, Emerson gives 
us a climax in two sentences which render fur- 
ther condemnation superfluous : — 

" In short, when you have penetrated through all 
the circles of power and splendor, you were not deal- 
ing with a gentleman, at last, but with an impostor 
and rogue ; and he fully deserves the epithet of 
Jupiter Scapin, or a sort of Scamp Jupiter. 

" So this exorbitant egotist narrowed, impoverished, 
and absorbed the power and existence of those who 
served him ; and the universal cry of France and of 
Europe in 1814 was, Enough of him ; ' Assez de 
Bonaparte.' " 



208 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

It was to this feeling that the French poet 
Barbier, whose death we have but lately seen 
announced, gave expression in the terrible satire 
in which he pictured France as a fiery courser 
bestridden by her spurred rider, who drove her 
in a mad career over heaps of rocks and ruins. 

But after all, Carlyle's " carriere ouverte aux 
talens" is the expression for Napoleon's great 
message to mankind. 

" Goethe ; or, the Writer," is the last of the 
Representative Men who are the subjects of this 
book of Essays. Emerson says he had read the 
fifty-five volumes of Goethe, but no other Ger- 
man writers, at least in the original. It must 
have been in fulfilment of some pious vow that 
he did this. After all that Carlyle had written 
about Goethe, he could hardly help studying 
him. But this Essay looks to me as if he had 
found the reading of Goethe hard work. It 
flows rather languidly, toys with side issues as 
a stream loiters round a nook in its margin, and 
finds an excuse for play in every pebble. Still, 
he has praise enough for his author. " He has 
clothed our modern existence with poetry." — 
" He has said the best things about nature that 
ever were said. — He flung into literature in his 
Mephistopheles the first organic figure that has 
been added for some ages, and which will remain 



MEMOIRS OF MARGARET FULLER OSSOLL 209 

as long as the Prometheus. — He is the type of 
culture, the amateur of all arts and sciences and 
events ; artistic, but not artist ; spiritual, but not 
spiritualist. — I join Napoleon with him, as be- 
ing both representatives of the impatience and 
reaction of nature against the morgue of conven- 
tions, — two stern realists, who, with their schol- 
ars, have severally set the axe at the root of the 
tree of cant and seeming, for this time and for 
all time." 

This must serve as an ex pede guide to recon- 
struct the Essay which finishes the volume. 

In 1852 there was published a Memoir of Mar- 
garet Fuller Ossoli, in which Emerson, James 
Freeman Clarke, and William Henry Channing 
each took a part. Emerson's account of her 
conversation and extracts from her letters and 
diaries, with his running commentaries and his 
interpretation of her mind and character, are a 
most faithful and vivid portraiture of a woman 
who is likely to live longer by what is written 
of her than by anything she ever wrote herself. 
14 



1858-1858. Mt. 50-55. 

Lectures in various Places. — Anti - Slavery Addresses. — 
Woman. A Lecture read before the Woman's Rights Con- 
vention. — Samuel Hoar. Speech at Concord. — Publica- 
tion of " English Traits/' — The " Atlantic Monthly." — 
The " Saturday Club." 

After Emerson's return from Europe lie de- 
livered lectures to different audiences, — one on 
Poetry, afterwards published in "Letters and 
Social Aims," a course of lectures in Freeman 
Place Chapel, Boston, some of which have been 
published, one on the Anglo-Saxon Race, and 
many others. In January, 1855, he gave one 
of the lectures in a course of Anti-Slavery Ad- 
dresses delivered in Tremont Temple, Boston. 
In the same year he delivered an address before 
the Anti-Slavery party of New York. His plan 
for the extirpation of slavery was to buy the 
slaves from the planters, not conceding their 
right to ownership, but because "it is the only 
practical course, and is innocent." It would 
cost two thousand millions, he says, according 
to the present estimate, but " was there ever any 



ANTI-SLAVERY ADDRESSES. 211 

contribution that was so enthusiastically paid as 
this would be ? " 

His optimism flowers out in all its innocent 
luxuriance in the paragraph from which this is 
quoted. Of course with notions like these he 
could not be hand in hand with the Abolition- 
ists. He was classed with the Free Sorters, but 
he seems to have formed a party by himself in 
his project for buying up the negroes. He 
looked at the matter somewhat otherwise in 
1863, when the settlement was taking place in a 
different currency, — in steel and not in gold : — 

"Pay ransom to the owner, 
And fill the bag to the brim. 
Who is the owner ? The slave is owner, 
And ever was. Pay him." 

His sympathies were all and always with free- 
dom. He spoke with indignation of the out- 
rage on Sumner; he took part in the meeting 
at Concord expressive of sympathy with John 
Brown. But he was never in the front rank of 
the aggressive Anti-Slavery men. In his singu- 
lar " Ode inscribed to W. H. Channing " there 
is a hint of a possible solution of the slavery 
problem which implies a doubt as to the per- 
manence of the cause of all the trouble. 

" The over-god 
Who marries Right to Might, 



212 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

Who peoples, unpeoples, — 
He who exterminates 
Races by stronger races, 
Black by white faces, — 
Knows to bring honey • 

Out of the lion." 

Some doubts of this kind helped Emerson to 
justify himself when he refused to leave his 
" honeyed thought " for the busy world where 
" Things are of the snake." 

The time came when he could no longer sit 
quietly in his study, and, to borrow Mr. Cooke's 
words, " As the agitation proceeded, and brave 
men took part in it, and it rose to a spirit of 
moral grandeur, he gave a heartier assent to the 
outward methods adopted." 

/ No woman could doubt the reverence of Em- 
erson for womanhood. In a lecture read to the 
" Woman's Rights Convention " in 1855, he 
takes bold, and what would then have been con- 
sidered somewhat advanced, ground in the con- 
troversy then and since dividing the community. 
This is the way in which he expresses himself : / 

" I do not think it yet appears that women wish 
>* V this equal share in public affairs. But it is they and 
f^ not we that are to determine it. Let the laws be 

purged of every barbarous remainder, every barba- 
rous impediment to women. Let the public dona- 



SAMUEL HOAR. 213 

tions for education be equally shared by them, let 
them enter a school as freely as a church, let them 
have and hold and give their property as men do 
theirs ; — and in a few years it will easily appear 
whether they wish a voice in making the laws that 
are to govern them. If you do refuse them a vote, 
you will also refuse to tax them, — according to our 
Teutonic principle, No representation, no tax. — The 
new movement is only a tide shared by the spirits of 
man and woman ; and you may proceed in the faith 
that whatever the woman's heart is prompted to de- 
sire, the man's mind is simultaneously prompted to 
accomplish." 



Emerson was fortunate enough to have had 
for many years as a neighbor, that true New 
England Roman, Samuel Hoar. He spoke of 
him in Concord before his fellow-citizens, shortly 
after his death, in 1856. He afterwards pre- 
pared a sketch of Mr. Hoar for " Putnam's Mag- 
azine," from which I take one prose sentence and 
the verse with which the sketch concluded : — 

" He was a model of those formal but reverend 
manners which make what is called a gentleman of 
the old school, so called under an impression that the 
style is passing away, but which, I suppose, is an op-' 
tical illusion, as there are always a few more of the 
class remaining, and always a few young men to 
'whom these manners are native." 

The single verse I quote is compendious enough 



214 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

and descriptive enough for an Elizabethan mon- 
umental inscription. 

" With beams December planets dart 
His cold eye truth and conduct scanned ; 
July was in his sunny heart, 
October in his liberal hand." 

Emerson's " English Traits," forming one vol- 
ume of his works, was published in 1856. It is 
a thoroughly fresh and original book. It is not 
a tourist's guide, not a detailed description of 
sights which tired the traveller in staring at 
them, and tire the reader who attacks the weary- 
ing pages in which they are recorded. Shrewd 
observation there is indeed, but its strength is in 
broad generalization and epigrammatic charac- 
terizations. They are not to be received as in any 
sense final ; they are not like the verifiable facts 
of science ; they are more or less sagacious, more 
or less well founded opinions formed by a fair- 
minded, sharp-witted, kind-hearted, open-souled 
philosopher, whose presence made every one 
well-disposed towards him, and consequently left 
him well-disposed to all the world. 

A glance at the table of contents will give 
an idea of the objects which Emerson proposed 
to himself in his tour, and which take up the 
principal portion of his record. Only one place 
is given as the heading of a chapter, — Stone- 
henge. The other eighteen chapters have gen- 



"ENGLISH traits: 1 215 

eral titles, Land, Race, Ability, Manners, and 
others of similar character. 

He uses plain English in introducing us to the 
Pilgrim fathers of the British Aristocracy : — 

" Twenty thousand thieves landed at Hastings. 
These founders of the House of Lords were greedy 
and ferocious dragoons, sons of greedy and ferocious 
pirates. They were all alike, they took everything 
they could carry ; they burned, harried, violated, 
tortured, and killed, until everything English was 
brought to the verge of ruin. Such, however, is the 
illusion of antiquity and wealth, that decent and dig- 
nified men now existing boast their descent from 
these filthy thieves, who showed a far juster convic- 
tion of their own merits by assuming for their types 
the swine, goat, jackal, leopard, wolf, and snake, 
which they severally resembled." 

The race preserves some of its better charac- 
teristics. 

" They have a vigorous health and last well into 
middle and old age. The old men are as red as 
roses, and still handsome. A clear skin, a peach- 
bloom complexion, and good teeth are found all over 
the island." L 

English " Manners " are characterized, accord- 
ing to Emerson, by pluck, vigor, independence. 
" Every one of these islanders is an island him- 
self, safe, tranquil, incommunicable." They are 
positive, methodical, cleanly, and formal, loving 



\v 



216 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

routine and conventional ways ; loving truth and 
religion, to be sure, but inexorable on points of 
form. 

" They keep their old customs, costumes, and pomps, 
their wig and mace, sceptre and crown. A severe 
decorum rules the court and the cottage. Pretension 
and vaporing are once for all distasteful. They hate 
nonsense, sentimentalism, and high-flown expressions ; 
they use a studied plainness." 

"In an aristocratical country like England, not 
the Trial by Jury, but the dinner is the capital in- 
stitution." 

" They confide in each other, — English believes 
in English." — " They require the same adherence, 
thorough conviction, and reality in public men." 

" As compared with the American, I think them 
cheerful and contented. Young people in this coun- 
try are much more prone to melancholy." 

Emerson's observation is in accordance with 
that of Cotton Mather nearly two hundred years 
ago. 

"New England, a country where splenetic Mala- 
dies are prevailing and pernicious, perhaps above any 
other, hath afforded numberless instances, of even 
pious people, who have contracted those Melancholy 
Indispositions, which have unhinged them from all 
service or comfort ; yea, not a few persons have been 
hurried thereby to lay Violent Sands upon them- 
selves at the last. These are among the unsearch- 
able Judgments of God." 



"ENGLISH TRAITS." 217 

If there is a little exaggeration about the fol- 
lowing portrait of the Englishman, it has truth 
enough to excuse its high coloring, and the like- 
ness will be smilingly recognized by every stout 
Briton. • 

" They drink brandy like water, cannot expend 
their quantities of waste strength on riding, hunting, 
swimming, and fencing, and run into absurd follies 
with the gravity of the Eumenides. They stoutly 
carry into every nook and corner of the earth their 
turbulent sense ; leaving no lie uncontradicted ; no 
pretension unexamined. They chew hasheesh ; cut 
themselves with poisoned creases, swing their ham- 
mock in the boughs of the Bohon Upas, taste every 
poison, buy every secret ; at Naples, they put St. 
Januarius's blood in an alembic ; they saw a hole into 
the head of the ' winking virgin ' to know why she 
winks ; measure with an English foot-rule every cell 
of the inquisition, every Turkish Caaba, every Holy of 
Holies ; translate and send to Bentley the arcanum," 
bribed and bullied away from shuddering Bramins ; 
and measure their own strength by the terror they 
cause." 

This last audacious picture might be hung up 
as a prose pendant to Marvell's poetical descrip- 
tion of Holland and the Dutch. 

" A saving stupidity marks and protects their per- 
ception as the curtain of the eagle's eye. Our swifter 
Americans, when they first deal with English, pro- 



218 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

nounce them stupid ; but later do them justice as 
people who wear well, or hide their strength. High 
or low, they are of an unctuous texture. Their daily 
feats argue a savage vigor of body. Half their 
strength they put not forth. The sterility of England 
is the security of the modern world." 

Perhaps nothing in any of his vigorous para- 
graphs is more striking than the suggestion that 
" if hereafter the war of races often predicted, 
and making itself a war of opinions also (a 
question of despotism and liberty coming from 
Eastern Europe), should menace the English 
civilization, these sea-kings may take once again 
to their floating castles and find a new home and 
a second millennium of power in their colonies." 

In reading some of Emerson's pages it seems 
as if another Arcadia, or the new Atlantis, had 
emerged as the fortunate island of Great Britain, 
or that he had reached a heaven on earth where 
neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where 
thieves do not break through nor steal, — or if 
they do, never think of denying that they have 
done it. But this was a generation ago, when 
the noun " shoddy," and the verb " to scamp," 
had not grown such familiar terms to English 
ears as they are to-day. Emerson saw the 
country on its best side. Each traveller makes 
his own England. A Quaker sees chiefly broad 
brims, and the island looks to him like a field of 
mushrooms. 



"ENGLISH TRAITS.'" 219 

The transplanted Church of England is rich 
and prosperous and fashionable enough not to 
be disturbed by Emerson's flashes of light that 
have not come through its stained windows. 

" The religion of England is part of good-breed- 
ing. "When you see on the continent the well-dressed 
Englishman come into his ambassador's chapel, and 
put his face for silent prayer into his smooth-brushed 
hat, one cannot help feeling how much national pride 
prays with him, and the religion of a gentleman. 

" The church at this moment is much to be pitied. 
She has nothing left but possession. If a bishop 
meets an intelligent gentleman, and reads fatal inter- 
rogation in his eyes, he has no resource but to take 
wine with him." 

Sydney Smith had a great reverence for a 
bishop, — so great that he told a young lady that 
he used to roll a crumb of bread in his hand, 
from nervousness, when he sat next one at a 
dinner-table, — and if next an archbishop, used 
to roll crumbs with both hands, — but Sydney 
Smith would have enjoyed the tingling felicity 
of this last stinging touch of wit, left as lightly 
and gracefully as a banderillero leaves his little 
gayly ribboned dart in the shoulders of the bull 
with whose unwieldy bulk he is playing. 

Emerson handles the formalism and the half 
belief of the Established Church very freely, 
but he closes his chapter on Religion with soft- 
spoken words. 



220 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

" Yet if religion be the doing of all good, and for 
its sake the suffering of all evil, soujfrir de tout le 
monde, et ne /aire souffrir personne, that divine se- 
cret has existed in England from the days of Alfred 
to those of Romilly, of Clarkson, and of Florence 
Nightingale, and in thousands who have no fame." 

" English Traits" closes with Emerson's speech 
at Manchester, at the annual banquet of the 
" Free Trade Athenaeum." This was merely an 
occasional after-dinner reply to a toast which 
called him up, but it had sentences in it which, 
if we can imagine Milton to have been called up 
in the same way, he might well have spoken and 
done himself credit in their utterance. 

The total impression left by the book is that 
Emerson was fascinated by the charm of English 
society, filled with admiration of the people, 
tempted to contrast his New Englanders in 
many respects unfavorably with Old England- 
ers, mainly in their material and vital stamina ; 
but with all this not blinded for a moment to the 
thoroughly insular limitations of the phlegmatic 
islander. He alternates between a turn of gen- 
uine admiration and a smile as at a people that 
has not outgrown its playthings. This is in 
truth the natural and genuine feeling of a self- 
governing citizen of a commonwealth where 
thrones and wigs and mitres seem like so many 



"THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY." 221 

pieces of stage property. An American need 
not be a philosopher to hold these things cheap. 
He cannot help it. Madame Tussaud's exhibi- 
tion, the Lord-Mayor's gilt coach, and a corona- 
tion, if one happens to be in season, are all 
sights to be seen by an American traveller, but 
the reverence which is born with the British 
subject went up with the smoke of the gun that 
fired the long echoing shot at the little bridge 
over the sleepy river which works its way along 
through the wide-awake town of Concord. 
/ In November, 1857, a new magazine was estab- 
lished in Boston, bearing the name of "The 
Atlantic Monthly." Professor James Russell 
Lowell was editor-in-chief, and Messrs. Phillips 
and Sampson, who were the originators of the 
enterprise, were the publishers. Many of the old 
contributors to "The Dial" wrote for the new 
magazine, among them Emerson. He contrib- 
uted twenty-eight articles in all, more than half 
of them verse, to different numbers, from the first 
to the thirty-seventh volume. Among them are 
several of his best known poems, such as " The 
Romany Girl," "Days," "Brahma," "Waldein- 
samkeit," "The Titmouse," "Boston Hymn," 
" Saadi," and " Terminus." 

At about the same time there grew up in Bos- 
ton a literary association, which became at last 
well known as the " Saturday Club," the mem- 



222 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

bers dining together on the last Saturday of 
every month. 

The Magazine and the Club have existed and 
flourished to the present day. They have often 
been erroneously thought to have some organic 
connection, and the " Atlantic Club " has been 
spoken of as if there was or had been such an 
institution, but it never existed. 

Emerson was a member of the Saturday Club 
from the first ; in reality before it existed as an 
empirical fact, and when it was only a Platonic 
idea. The Club seems to have shaped itself 
around him as a nucleus of crystallization, two or 
three friends of his having first formed the habit 
of meeting him at dinner at "Parker's," the 
"Will's Coffee-House" of Boston. This little 
group gathered others to itself and grew into 
a club as Rome grew into a city, almost with- 
out knowing how. During its first decade the 
Saturday Club brought together, as members 
or as visitors, many distinguished persons. At 
one end of the table sat Longfellow, florid, 
quiet, benignant, soft- voiced, a most agreeable 
rather than a brilliant talker, but a man upon 
whom it was always pleasant to look, — whose 
silence was better than many another man's con- 
versation. At the other end of the table sat 
Agassiz, robust, sanguine, animated, full of talk, 
boy-like in his laughter. The stranger who 



THE "SATURDAY CLUB." 223 

should have asked who were the men ranged 
along the sides of the table would have heard in 
answer the names of Hawthorne, Motley, Dana, 
Lowell, Whipple, Peirce, the distinguished math- 
ematician, Judge Hoar, eminent at the bar and 
in the cabinet, Dwight, the leading musical critic 
of Boston for a whole generation, Sumner, the 
academic champion of freedom, Andrew, " the 
great War Governor " of Massachusetts, Dr. 
Howe, the philanthropist, William Hunt, the 
painter, with others not unworthy of such com- 
pany. And with these, generally near the Long- 
fellow end of the table, sat Emerson, talking in 
low tones and carefully measured utterances to 
his neighbor, or listening, and recording any 
stray word worth remembering on his mental 
phonograph. Emerson was a very regular at- 
tendant at the meetings of the Saturday Club, 
and continued to dine at its table, until within 
a year or two of his death. 

Unfortunately the Club had no Boswell, and 
its golden hours passed unrecorded. 



CHAPTER IX. 

1858-1863. Mi. 55-60. 

Essay on Persian Poetry. — Speech at the Burns Centennial 
Festival. — Letter from Emerson to a Lady. — Tributes to 
Theodore Parker and to Thoreau. — Address on the Eman- 
cipation Proclamation. — Publication of " The Conduct of 
Life." Contents : Fate ; Power ; Wealth ; Culture ; Be- 
havior ; Considerations by the Way ; Beauty ; Illusions. 

The Essay on Persian Poetry, published in the 
" Atlantic Monthly " in 1858, should be studied 
by all readers who are curious in tracing the in- 
fluence of Oriental poetry on Emerson's verse. 
In many of the shorter poems and fragments 
published since " May-Day," as well as in the 
" Quatrains " and others of the later poems in 
that volume, it is sometimes hard to tell what is 
from the Persian from what is original. 

On the 25th of January, 1859, Emerson at- 
tended the Burns Festival, held at the Parker 
House in Boston, on the Centennial Anniversary 
of the poet's birth. He spoke after the dinner 
to the great audience with such beauty and 
eloquence that all who listened to him have re- 
membered it as one of the most delightful ad- 
dresses they ever heard. Among his hearers was 



LETTER TO A LADY. 225 

Mr. Lowell, who says of it that " every word 
seemed to have just dropped down to him from 
the clouds." Judge Hoar, who was another of 
his hearers, says, that though he has heard many 
of the chief orators of his time, he never wit- 
nessed such an effect of speech upon men. I 
was myself present on that occasion, and under- 
went the same fascination that these gentlemen 
and the varied audience before the speaker ex- 
perienced. His words had a passion in them 
not usual in the calm, pure flow most natural 
to his uttered thoughts ; white-hot iron we are 
familiar with, but white-hot silver is what we do 
not often look upon, and his inspiring address 
glowed like silver fresh from the cupel. 

I am allowed the privilege of printing the 
following letter addressed to a lady of high 
intellectual gifts, who was one of the earliest, 
most devoted, and most faithful of his intimate 

friends : — 

Concord, May 13, 1859. 

Please, dear C., not to embark for home until 
I have despatched these lines, which I will hasten to 
finish. Louis Napoleon will not bayonet you the 
while, — keep him at the door. So long I have prom- 
ised to write ! so long I have thanked your long 
suffering ! I have let pass the unreturning opportu- 
nity your visit to Germany gave to acquaint you with 
Gisela von Arnim (Bettina's daughter), and Joachim 
15 



226 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

the violinist, and Hermann Grimm the scholar, her 
friends. Neither has E., — wandering in Europe 
with hope of meeting you, — yet met. This con- 
tumacy of mine I shall regret as long as I live. How 
palsy creeps over us, with gossamer first, and ropes 
afterwards ! and the witch has the prisoner when 
once she has put her eye on him, as securely as after' 
the bolts are drawn. — Yet I and all my little com- 
pany watch every token from you, and coax Mrs. H. 
to read us letters. I learned with satisfaction that 
you did not like Germany. Where then did Goethe 
find his lovers ? Do all the women have bad noses 
and bad mouths ? And will you stop in England, and 
bring home the author of " Counterparts " with you? 
Or did write the hovels and send them to Lon- 
don, as I fancied when I read them? How strange 
that you and I alone to this day should have his 
secret ! I think our people will never allow genius, 

without it is alloyed by talent. But is paralyzed 

by his whims, that I have ceased to hope from him. 
I could wish your experience of your friends were 
more animating than mine, and that there were any 
horoscope you could not cast from the first day. The 
faults of youth are never shed, no, nor the merits, 
and creeping time convinces ever the more of our im- 
potence, and of the irresistibility of our bias. Still 
this is only science, and must remain science. Our 
praxis is never altered for that. We must forever 
hold our companions responsible, or they are not 
companions but stall-fed. 

I think, as we grow older, we decrease as indi- 



LETTER TO A LADY. 227 

viduals, and as if in an immense audience who hear 
stirring music, none essays to offer a new stave, but 
we only join emphatically in the chorus. We volun- 
teer no opinion, we despair of guiding people, but are 
confirmed in our perception that Nature is all right, 
and that we have a good understanding with it. We 
must shine to a few brothers, as palms or pines or 
roses among common weeds, not from greater absolute 
value, but from a more convenient nature. But 't is 
almost chemistry at last, though a meta-chemistry. 
I remember you were such an impatient blasphemer, 
however musically, against the adamantine identities, 
in your youth, that you should take your turn of resig- 
nation now, and be a preacher of peace. But there 
is a little raising of the eyebrow, now and then, in 
the most passive acceptance, — if of an intellectual 
turn. Here comes out around me at this moment the 
new June, — the leaves say June, though the calendar 
says May, — and we must needs hail our young rela- 
tives again, though with something of the gravity of 
adult sons and daughters receiving a late-born brother 
or sister. Nature herself seems a little ashamed of a 
law so monstrous, billions of summers, and now the 
old game again without a new bract or sepal. But 
you will think me incorrigible with my generalities, 
and you so near, and will be here again this sum- 
mer ; perhaps with A. W. and the other travellers. 
My children scan curiously your E.'s drawings, as 
they have seen them. 

The happiest winds fill the sails of you and yours ! 

R. W. Emerson. 



228 RALPH WALDO EMERSON, 

In the year 1860, Theodore Parker died, and 
Emerson spoke of his life and labors at the 
meeting held at the Music Hall to do honor to 
his memory. Emerson delivered discourses on 
Sundays and week-days in the Music Hall to 
Mr. Parker's society after his death. In 1862, 
he lost his friend Thoreau, at whose funeral 
he delivered an address which was published in 
the "Atlantic Monthly " for August of the same 
year. Thoreau had many rare and admirable 
qualities, and Thoreau pictured by Emerson is a 
more living personage than White of Selborne 
would have been on the canvas of Sir Joshua 
Reynolds. 

The Address on the Emancipation Proclama- 
tion was delivered in Boston in September, 1862. 
The feeling that inspired it may be judged by 
the following extract : — 

"Happy are the young, who find the pestilence 
cleansed out of the earth, leaving open to them an 
honest career. Happy the old, who see Nature puri- 
fied before they depart. Do not let the dying die ; 
hold them back \o this world, until you have charged 
their ear and heart with this message to other spiritual 
societies, announcing the melioration of our planet : — 

" ' Incertainties now crown themselves assured, 
And Peace proclaims olives of endless age.' ' : 

The "Conduct of Life" was published in 
1860. The chapter on " Fate " might leave the 



"CONDUCT OF LIFE." 229 

reader with a feeling that what he is to do, as 
well as what he is to be and to suffer, is so 
largely predetermined for him, that his will, 
though formally asserted, has but a questionable 
fraction in adjusting him to his conditions as a 
portion of the universe. But let him hold fast 
to this reassuring statement : — 

" If we must accept Fate, we are not less compelled 
to affirm liberty, the significance of the individual, the 
grandeur of duty, the power of character. — We are 
sure, that, though we know not how, necessity does 
comport with liberty, the individual with the world, 
my polarity with the spirit of the times." 

But the value of the Essay is not so much in 
any light it throws on the mystery of volition, as 
on the striking and brilliant way in which the 
limitations of the individual and the inexplicable 
rule of law are illustrated. 

" Nature is no sentimentalist, — does not cosset or 
pamper us. We must see that the world is rough 
and surly, and will not mind drowning a man or a 
woman ; but swallows your ship like a grain of dust. 
— The way of Providence is a little rude. The habit 
of snake and spider, the snap of the tiger and other 
leapers and bloody jumpers, the crackle of the bones 
of his prey in the coil of the anaconda, — these are in 
the system, and our habits are like theirs. You have 
just dined, and however scrupulously the slaughter- 
house is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, 



230 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

there is complicity, — expensive races, — race living 
at the expense of race. — Let us not deny it up and 
down. Providence has a wild, rough, incalculable 
road to its end, and it is of no use to try to whitewash 
its huge, mixed instrumentalities, or to dress up that 
terrific benefactor in a clean shirt and white neckcloth 
of a student in divinity." 

Emerson cautions his reader against the dan- 
ger of the doctrines which he believed in so 
fully : — 

" They who talk much of destiny, their birth-star, 
etc., are in a lower dangerous plane, and invite the 
evils they fear." 

But certainly no physiologist, no cattle-breeder, 
no Calvinistic predestinarian could put his view 
more vigorously than Emerson, who dearly loves 
a picturesque statement, has given it in these 
words, which have a dash, of science, a flash of 
Imagination, and a hint of the delicate wit that 
is one of his characteristics : — 

" People are born with the moral or with the 
material bias ; — uterine brothers with this diverging 
destination : and I suppose, with high magnifiers, 
Mr. Fraunhofer or Dr. Carpenter might come to dis- 
tinguish in the embryo at the fourth day, this is a 
whig and that a free-soiler." 

Let us see what Emerson has to say of 
" Power : " — 

" All successful men have agreed in one thing — 



"POWER" 231 

they were causationists. They believed that things 
went not by hick, but by law ; that there was not a 
weak or a cracked link in the chain that joins the 
first and the last of things. 

" The key to the age may be this, or that, or the 
other, as the young orators describe ; — the key to all 
ages is, — Imbecility ; imbecility in the vast major- 
ity of men at all times, and, even in heroes, in all 
but certain eminent moments ; victims of gravity, 
custom, and fear. This gives force to the strong, — 
that the multitude have no habit of self-reliance or 
original action. — 

"We say that success is constitutional; depends on 
a plus condition of mind and body, on power of work, 
on courage ; that is of main efficacy in carrying on 
the world, and though rarely found in the right state 
for an article of commerce, but oftener in the super- 
natural or excess, which makes it dangerous and de- 
structive, yet it cannot be spared, and must be had 
in that form, and absorbents provided to take off its 
edge." 

The " two economies which are the best suc- 
cedanea" for deficiency of temperament are con- 
centration and drill. This he illustrates by ex- 
ample, and he also lays down some good, plain, 
practical rules which " Poor Richard " would 
have cheerfully approved. He might have ac- 
cepted also the Essay on " Wealth " as having 
a good sense so like his own that he could 
hardly tell the difference between them. 



232 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

" Wealth begins in a tight roof that keeps the rain 
and wind out ; in a good pump that yields you plenty 
of sweet water ; in two suits of clothes, so as to 
change your dress when you are wet ; in dry sticks 
to burn ; in a good double-wick lamp, and three 
meals ; in a horse or locomotive to cross the land; 
in a boat to cross the sea ; in tools to work with ; in 
books to read ; and so, in giving, on all sides, by 
tools and auxiliaries, the greatest possible extension 
to our powers, as if it added feet, and hands, and 
eyes, and blood, length to the day, and knowledge 
and good will. Wealth begins with these articles of 
necessity. — 

" To be rich is to have a ticket of admission to the 
masterworks and chief men of each race. — 

" The pulpit and the press have many common- 
places denouncing the thirst for wealth ; but if men 
should take these moralists at their word, and leave 
off aiming to be rich, the moralists would rush to re- 
kindle at all hazards this love of power in the people, 
lest civilization should be undone." 

Who can give better counsels on " Culture " 
than Emerson ? But we must only borrow a few 
sentences from his essay on that subject. All 
kinds of secrets come out as we read these 
Essays of Emerson's. We know something of 
his friends and disciples who gathered round 
him and sat at his feet. It is not hard to be- 
lieve that he was drawing one of those composite 
portraits Mr. Galton has given us specimens of 
when he wrote as follows : — 



"CULTURE" 233 

" The pest of society is egotism. This goitre of 
egotism is so frequent among notable persons that we 
must infer some strong necessity in nature which it 
subserves ; such as we see in the sexual attraction. 
The preservation of the species was a point of such 
necessity that Nature has secured it at all hazards by 
immensely overloading the passion, at the risk of per- 
petual crime and disorder. So egotism has its root 
in the cardinal necessity by which each individual 
persists to be what he is. 

" The antidotes against this organic egotism are, 
the range and variety of attraction, as gained by ac- 
quaintance with the world, with men of merit, with 
classes of society, with travel, with eminent persons, 
and with the high resources of jmilosophy, art, and 
religion : books, travel, society, solitude." 

" We can ill spare the commanding social benefits 
of cities ; they must be used ; yet cautiously and 
haughtily, — and will yield their best values to him 
who can best do without them. Keep the town for 
occasions, but the habits should be formed to retire- 
ment. Solitude, the safeguard of mediocrity, is to 
genius the stern friend, the cold, obscure shelter, 
where moult the wings which will bear it farther than 
suns and stars." 

We must remember, too, that " the calamities 
are our friends. Try the rough water as well 
as the smooth. Rough water can teach lessons 
worth knowing. Don't be so tender at making 
an enemy now and then. He who aims high, 



234 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

must dread an easy home and popular man- 
ners." 

Emerson cannot have had many enemies, if 
any, in his calm and noble career. He can have 
cherished no enmity, on personal grounds at 
least. But he refused his hand to one who had 
spoken ill of a friend whom he respected. It 
was " the hand of Douglas " again, — the same 
feeling that Charles Emerson expressed in the 
youthful essay mentioned in the introduction to 
this volume. 

Here are a few good sayings about " Be- 
havior." 

" There is always a best way of doing everything, 
if it be to boil an egg. Manners are the happy ways 
of doing things ; each once a stroke of genius or of 
love, — now repeated and hardened into usage." 

Thus it is that Mr. Emerson speaks of " Man- 
ners " in his Essay under the above title. 

" The basis of good manners is self-reliance. — 
Manners require time, as nothing is more vulgar than 
haste. — 

" Men take each other's measure, when they meet 
for the first time, — and every time they meet. — 

" It is not what talents or genius a man has, but 
how he is to his talents, that constitutes friendship 
and character. The man that stands by himself, the 
/ universe stands by him also." 



"worship." (235 

In his Essay on " Worship," Emerson ventures 
the following prediction : — 

" The religion which is to guide and fulfil the 
present and coming ages, whatever else it be, must he 
intellectual. The scientific mind must have a faith 
which is science. — There will be a new church 
founded on moral science, at first cold and naked, a 
babe in a manger again, the algebra and mathematics 
of ethical law, the church of men to come, without 
shawms or psaltery or sackbut ; but it will have heaven 
and earth for its beams and rafters ; science for sym- 
bol and illustration ; it will fast enough gather beauty, 
music, picture, poetry." 

It is a bold prophecy, but who can doubt that 
all improbable and un verifiable traditional knowl- 
edge of all kinds will make way for the estab- 
lished facts of science and history when these 
last reach it in their onward movement ? It may 
be remarked that he now speaks of science more 
respectfully than of old. I suppose this Essay 
was of later date than "Beauty," or "Illusions." 
But accidental circumstances made such con- 
fusion in the strata of Emerson's published 
thought that one is often at a loss to know 
whether a sentence came from the older or the 
newer layer. 

We come to " Considerations by the Way." 
The common-sense side of Emerson's mind has 
so much in common with the plain practical in- 



236 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

telligence of Franklin that it is a pleasure to find 
the philosopher of the nineteenth century quoting 
the philosopher of the eighteenth. 

" Franklin said, ' Mankind are very superficial and 
dastardly : they begin upon a thing, but, meeting with 
a difficulty, they fly from it discouraged : but they 
have the means if they would employ them.' " 

" Shall we judge a country by the majority, or 
by the minority ? By the minority, surely." Here 
we have the doctrine of the " saving remnant," 
which we have since recognized in Mr. Matthew 
Arnold's well-remembered lecture. Our repub- 
lican philosopher is clearly enough outspoken on 
this matter of the vox populi. " Leave this hypo- 
critical prating about the masses. Masses are 
rude, lame, unmade, pernicious in their demands, 
and need not to be flattered, but to be schooled. 
I wish not to concede anything to them, but to 
tame, drill, divide, and break them up, and draw 
individuals out of them." 

Pere Bouhours asked a question about the 
Germans which found its answer in due time. 
After reading what Emerson says about " the 
masses," one is tempted to ask whether a philos- 
opher can ever have " a constituency " and be 
elected to Congress ? Certainly the essay just 
quoted from would not make a very promising 
campaign document. 



"BEAUTY." 237 

Perhaps there was no great necessity for Emer- 
son's returning to the subject of " Beauty," to 
which he had devoted a chapter of " Nature," 
and of which he had so often discoursed inciden- 
tally. But he says so many things worth read- 
ing in the Essay thus entitled in the " Conduct of 
Life " that we need not trouble ourselves about 
repetitions. The Essay is satirical and poetical 
rather than philosophical. Satirical when he 
speaks of science with something of that old feel- 
ing betrayed by his brother Charles when he was 
writing in 1828; poetical in the flight of imag- 
ination with which he enlivens, entertains, stim- 
ulates, inspires, — or as some may prefer to say, 
— amuses his listeners and readers. 

The reader must decide which of these effects 
is produced by the following passage : — 

u The feat of the imagination is in showing the 
convertibility of everything into every other thing. 
Facts which had never before left their stark com- 
mon sense suddenly figure as Eleusinian mysteries. 
My boots and chair and candlestick are fairies in 
disguise, meteors, and constellations. All the facts in 
Nature are nouns of the intellect, and make the 
grammar of the eternal language. Every word has a 
double, treble, or centuple use and meaning. What ! 
has my stove and pepper-pot a false bottom ? I cry 
you mercy, good shoe-box ! I did not know you were 
a jewel-case. Chaff and dust begin to sparkle, and 



238 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

are clothed about with immortality. And there is a 
joy in perceiving the representative or symbolic char- 
acter of a fact, which no base fact or event can ever 
give. There are no days so memorable as those which 
vibrated to some stroke of the imagination." 

One is reminded of various things in reading 
this sentence. An ounce of alcohol, or a few 
whiffs from an opium-pipe, may easily make a 
day memorable by bringing on this imaginative 
delirium, which is apt, if often repeated, to run 
into visions of rodents and reptiles. A coarser 
satirist than Emerson indulged his fancy in 
"Meditations on a Broomstick," which My Lady 
Berkeley heard seriously and to edification. 
Meditations on a " Shoe-box " are less promis- 
ing, but no doubt something could be made of 
it. A poet must select, and if he stoops too low 
, v he cannot lift the object he would fain idealize. 
The habitual readers of Emerson do not mind 
an occasional over-statement, extravagance, par- 
adox, eccentricity ; they find them amusing and 
not misleading. But the accountants, for whom 
two and two always make four, come upon one 
of these passages and shut the book up as want- 
ing in sanity. Without a certain sensibility to 
the humorous, no one should venture upon Em- 
erson. If he had seen the lecturer's smile as he 
delivered one of his playful statements of a run- 
away truth, fact unhorsed by imagination, some- 



"ILLUSIONS." 239 

times by wit, or humor, he would have found a 
meaning in his words which the featureless 
printed page could never show him. 

The Essay on " Illusions " has little which we 
have not met with, or shall not find repeating 
itself in the Poems. 

During this period Emerson contributed many 
articles in prose and verse to the "Atlantic 
Monthly," and several to " The Dial," a second 
periodical of that name published in Cincinnati. 
Some of these have been, or will be, elsewhere 
referred to. 



CHAPTEE X. 

1863-1868. Mr. 60-65. 

u Boston Hymn." — " Voluntaries." — Other Poems. — " May- 
Day and other Pieces." — "Remarks at the Funeral Ser- 
vices of Abraham Lincoln." — Essay on Persian Poetry. — 
Address at a Meeting of the Free Religious Association. 
— " Progress of Culture." Address before the Phi Beta 
Kappa Society of Harvard University. — Course of Lec- 
tures in Philadelphia. — The Degree of LL. D. conferred 
upon Emerson by Harvard University. — " Terminus." 

The " Boston Hymn " was read by Emerson 
in the Music Hall, on the first day of January, 
1863. It is a rough piece of verse, but noble 
from beginning to end. One verse of it, begin- 
ning " Pay ransom to the owner," has been al- 
ready quoted ; these are the three that precede 

it: — 

" I cause from every creature 
His proper good to flow: 
As much as he is and doeth 
So much shall he bestow. 

" But laying hands on another 
To coin his labor and sweat, 
He goes in pawn to his victim 
For eternal years in debt. 



"VOLUNTARIES." 241 

" To-day unbind the captive, 
So only are ye unbound : 
Lift up a people from the dust, 
Trump of their rescue, sound ! " 

" Voluntaries," published in the same year in 
the " Atlantic Monthly," is more dithyrambic in 
its measure and of a more Pindaric elevation than 
the plain song of the " Boston Hymn." 

" But best befriended of the God 
He who, in evil times, 
Warned by an inward voice, 
Heeds not the darkness and the dread, 
Biding by his rule and choice, 
Feeling only the fiery thread 
Leading over heroic ground, 
Walled with mortal terror round, 
To the aim which him allures, 
And the sweet heaven his deed secures. 
Peril around, all else appalling, 
Cannon in front and leaden rain 
Him duly through the clarion calling 
To the van called not in vain." 

It is in this poem that we find the lines which, 
a moment after they were written, seemed as if 
they had been carved on marble for a thousand 
years : — 

" So nigh is grandeur to our dust, 
So near is God to man, 
When Duty whispers low, Thou must, 
The youth replies, / can." 
16 



242 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

" Saadi " was published in the " Atlantic 
Monthly" in 1864, "My Garden" in 1866, 
" Terminus " in 1867. In the same year these 
last poems with many others were collected in a 
small volume, entitled " May-Day, and Other 
Pieces." The general headings of these poems 
are as follows : May-Day. — The Adirondacs. — 
Occasional and Miscellaneous Pieces. — Nature 
and Life. — Elements. — Quatrains. — Transla- 
tions. — Some of these poems, which were writ- 
ten at long intervals, have been referred to in 
previous pages. " The Adirondacs " is a pleas- 
ant narrative, but not to be compared for its 
poetical character with " May-Day," one passage 
from which, beginning, 

" I saw the bud-crowned Spring go forth," 

is surpassingly imaginative and beautiful. In 
this volume will be found " Brahma," " Days," 
and others which are well known to all readers 
of poetry. 

Emerson's delineations of character are re- 
markable for high-relief and sharp-cut lines. In 
his Remarks at the Euneral Services for Abra- 
ham Lincoln, held in Concord, April 19, 1865, 
he drew the portrait of the homespun - robed 
chief of the Republic with equal breadth and 
delicacy : — 






"FREE RELIGIOUS ASSOCIATION:' 243 

" Here was place for no holiday magistrate, no 
fair weather sailor ; the new pilot was hurried to the 
helm in a tornado. In four years, — four years of 
battle-days, — his endurance, his fertility of resources, 
his magnanimity, were sorely tried and never found 
wanting. There, by his courage, his justice, his even 
temper, his fertile counsel, his humanity, he stood a 
heroic figure in the centre of a heroic epoch. He is 
the true history of the American people in his time. 
Step by step he walked before them ; slow with their 
slowness, quickening his inarch by theirs, the true 
representative of this continent ; an entirely public 
man ; father of his country ; the pulse of twenty 
millions throbbing in his heart, the thought of their 
minds articulated by his tongue." 

In his " Remarks at the Organization of the 
Free Religious Association," Emerson stated his 
leading thought about religion in a very succinct 
and sufficiently " transcendental " way : intelli- 
gibly for those who wish to understand him; 
mystically to those who do not accept or wish to 
accept the doctrine shadowed forth in his poem, 
" The Sphinx." 

— "As soon as every man is apprised of the 
Divine Presence within his own mind, — is apprised 
that the perfect law of duty corresponds with the 
laws of chemistry, of vegetation, of astronomy, as 
face to face in a glass ; that the basis of duty, the 
order of society, the power of character, the wealth 



244 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

of culture, the perfection of taste, all draw their 
essence from this moral sentiment ; then we have a 
religion that exalts, that commands all the social and 
all the private action." 

Nothing could be more wholesome in a 
meeting of creed-killers than the suggestive re- 
mark, — 

— " What I expected to find here was, some prac- 
tical suggestions by which we were to reanimate and 
reorganize for ourselves the true Church, the pure 
worship. Pure doctrine always bears fruit in pure 
benefits. It is only by good works, it is only on the 
basis of active duty, that worship finds expression. — 
The interests that grow out of a meeting like this, 
should bind us with new strength to the old eternal 
duties." 

In a later address before the same association, 
Emerson says : — 

" I object, of course, to the claim of miraculous 
dispensation, — certainly not to the doctrine of Chris- 
tianity. — If you are childish and exhibit your saint 
as a worker of wonders, a thaumaturgist, I am re- 
pelled. That claim takes his teachings out of nature, 
and permits official and arbitrary senses to be grafted 
on the teachings." 

The " Progress of Culture " was delivered as 
a Phi Beta Kappa oration just thirty years -after 
his first address before the same society. It is 
very instructive to compare the two orations 



''PROGRESS OF CULTURE." 245 

written at the interval of a whole generation : 
one in 1837, at the age o£ thirty-four ; the other 
in 1867, at the age of sixty-four. Both are 
hopeful, but the second is more sanguine than 
the first. He recounts what he considers the 
recent gains of the reforming movement : — 

" Observe the marked ethical quality of the inno- 
vations urged or adopted. The new claim of woman 
to a political status is itself an honorable testimony to 
the civilization which has given her a civil status new 
in history. Now that by the increased humanity of 
law she controls her property, she inevitably takes the 
next step to her share in power." 

He enumerates many other gains, from the 
war or from the growth of intelligence, — u All, 
one may say, in a high degree revolutionary, 
teaching nations the taking of governments into 
their own hands, and superseding kings." 

He repeats some of his fundamental formulae. 

"The foundation of culture, as of character, is at 
last the moral sentiment. 

" Great men are they who see that spiritual is 
stronger than any material force, that thoughts rule 
the world. 

" Periodicity, reaction, are laws of mind as well as 
of matter." 

And most encouraging it is to read in 1884 
what was written in 1867, — especially in the 
view of future possibilities. 




246 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

" Bad kings and governors help us, if only 
hey are bad enough." Non tali auxilio, we 
exclaim, with a shudder of remembrance, and 
are very glad to read these concluding words : 
" I read the promise of better times and of 
greater men." 

In the year 1886, Emerson reached the age 
which used to be spoken of as the " grand cli- 
macteric." In that year Harvard University 
conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of 
Laws, the highest honor in its gift. 

In that same year, having left home on one of 
his last lecturing trips, he met his son, Dr. 
Edward Waldo Emerson, at the Brevoort House, 
in New York. Then, and in that place, he read 
to his son the poem afterwards published in the 
" Atlantic Monthly," and in his second volume, 
under the title " Terminus." This was the first 
time that Dr. Emerson recognized the fact that 
his father felt himself growing old. The thought, 
which must have been long shaping itself in the 
father's mind, had been so far from betraying 
itself that it was a shock to the son to hear it 
plainly avowed. The poem is one of his noblest ; 
he could not fold his robes about him with more 
of serene dignity than in these solemn lines. The 
reader may remember that one passage from it 
has been quoted for a particular purpose, but here 
is the whole poem : — 



TERMINUS. 247 

TERMINUS. 

It is time to be old, 

To take in sail : — 

The god of bounds, 

Who sets to seas a shore, 

Came to me in his fatal rounds, 

And said : " No more ! 

No farther shoot 

Thy broad ambitious branches, and thy root. 

Fancy departs : no more invent ; 

Contract thy firmament 

To compass of a tent. 

There 's not enough for this and that, 

Make thy option which of two ; 

Economize the failing river, 

Not the less revere the Giver, 

Leave the many and hold the few, 

Timely wise accept the terms, 

Soften the fall with wary foot ; 

A little while 

Still plan and smile, 

And, — fault of novel germs, — 

Mature the unfallen fruit. 

Curse, if thou wilt, thy sires, 

Bad husbands of their fires, 

Who when they gave thee breath, 

Failed to bequeath 

The needful sinew stark as once, 

The baresark marrow to thy bones, 

But left a legacy of ebbing veins, 

Inconstant heat and nerveless reins, — 

Amid the Muses, left thee deaf and dumb, 

Amid the gladiators, halt and numb. 



248 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

" As the bird trirns her to the gale 
I trim myself to the storm of time, 
I man the rudder, reef the sail, 
Obey the voice at eve obeyed at prime : 

'Lowly faithful, banish fear, 
Right onward drive unharmed ; 
The port, well worth the cruise, is near, 
And every wave is charmed.'" 



CHAPTER XL 

1868-1873. Mt 65-70. 

Lectures on the Natural History of the Intellect. — Publication 
of " Society and Solitude." Contents : Society and Solitude. 
— Civilization. — Art. — Eloquence. — Domestic Life. — 
Farming. — Works and Days. — Books. — Clubs. — Cour- 
age. — Success. — Old Age. — Other Literary Labors. — 
Visit to California. — Burning of his House, and the Story 
of its Rebuilding. — Third Visit to Europe. — His Reception 
at Concord on his Return. 

During three successive years, 1868, 1869, 
1870, Emerson delivered a series of Lectures at 
Harvard University on the " Natural History of 
the Intellect." These Lectures, as I am told by 
Dr. Emerson, cost him a great deal of labor, but 
I am not aware that they have been collected or 
reported. They will be referred to in the course 
of this chapter, in an extract from Prof. Thay- 
er's "Western Journey with Mr. Emerson." 
He is there reported as saying that he cared 
very little for metaphysics. It is very certain 
that he makes hardly any use of the ordinary 
terms employed by metaphysicians. If he does 
not hold the words "subject and object" with 
their adjectives, in the same contempt that Mr. 



250 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

Ruskin shows for them, he very rarely employs 
either of these expressions. Once he ventures 
on the not me, but in the main he uses plain 
English handles for the few metaphysical tools 
he has occasion to employ. 

" Society and Solitude " was published in 
1870. The first Essay in the volume bears the 
same name as the volume itself. 

In this first Essay Emerson is very fair to the 
antagonistic claims of solitary and social life. 
He recognizes the organic necessity of solitude. 
We are driven " as with whips into the desert." 
But there is danger in this seclusion. u Now 
and then a man exquisitely made can live alone 
and must ; but coop up most men and you undo 
them. — Here again, as so often, Nature delights 
to put us between extreme antagonisms, and our 
safety is in the skill with which we keep the 
diagonal line. — The conditions are met, if we 
keep our independence yet do not lose our sym- 
pathy." 

The Essay on " Civilization " is pleasing, put- 
ting familiar facts in a very agreeable way. 
The framed or stone-house in place of the cave 
or the camp, the building of roads, the change 
from war, hunting, and pasturage to agriculture, 
the division of labor, the skilful combinations 
of civil government, the diffusion of knowledge 



' ; CIVILIZATION." 251 

through the press, are well worn subjects which 
he treats agreeably, if not with special bril- 
liancy : — 

" Right position of woman in the State is another 
index. — Place the sexes in right relations of mutual 
respect, and a severe morality gives that essential 
charm to a woman which educates all that is delicate, 
poetic, and self-sacrificing ; breeds courtesy and learn- 
ing, conversation and wit, in her rough mate, so that 
I have thought a sufficient measure of civilization is 
the influence of good women." 

My attention was drawn to one paragraph for 
a reason which my reader will readily understand, 
and I trust look upon good-naturedly : — 

" The ship, in its latest complete equipment, is an 
abridgment and compend of a nation's arts : the ship 
steered by compass and chart, longitude reckoned by 
lunar observation and by chronometer, driven by 
steam ; and in wildest sea-mountains, at vast distances 
from home, — 

" ' The pulses of her iron heart 

Go beating through the storm.' " 

I cannot be wrong, it seems to me, in supposing 
those two lines to be an incorrect version of 
these two from a poem of my own called " The 
Steamboat : " 

" The beating of her restless heart 
Still sounding through the storm." 

It is never safe to quote poetry from memory, 



252 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

at least wMle the writer lives, for lie is ready to 
"cavil on the ninth part of a hair" where his 
verses are concerned. But extreme accuracy was 
not one of Emerson's special gifts, and vanity 
whispers to the misrepresented versifier that 

't is better to be quoted wrong 
Than to be quoted not at all. 

This Essay of Emerson's is irradiated by a 
single precept that is worthy to stand by the side 
of that which Juvenal says came from heaven. 
How could the man in whose thought such a 
meteoric expression suddenly announced itself 
fail to recognize it as divine ? It is not strange 
that he repeats it on the page next the one 
where we first see it. Not having any golden 
letters to print it in, I will underscore it for 
italics, and doubly underscore it in the second 
extract for small capitals : — 

" Now that is the wisdom of a man, in every in- 
stance of his labor, to hitch his wagon to a star, and 
see his chore done by the gods themselves." — 

" ' It was a great instruction,' said a saint in Crom- 
well's war, ' that the best courages are but beams of 
the Almighty.' Hitch youe, wagon to a star. 
Let us not fag in paltry works which serve our pot 
and bag alone. Let us not lie and steal. No god 
will help. We shall find all their teams going the 
other way, — Charles's Wain, Great Bear, Orion, 
Leo, Hercules : every god will leave us. Work rather 



"ART" 253 

for those interests which the divinities honor and 
promote, — justice, love, freedom, knowledge, util- 
ity." — 

Charles's Wain and the Great Bear, he should- 
have been reminded, are the same constellation ; 
the Dipper is what our people often call it, and 
the country folk all know " the pmters," which 
guide their eyes to the North Star. 

I find in the Essay on " Art " many of the 
thoughts with which we are familiar in Emer- 
son's poem, " The Problem." It will be enough 
to cite these passages : — 

" We feel in seeing a noble building which rhymes 
well, as we do hi hearing a perfect song, that it is 
spiritually organic ; that it had a necessity in nature 
for being ; was one of the possible forms in the 
Divine mind, and is now only discovered and exe- 
cuted by the artist, not arbitrarily composed by him. 
And so every genuine work of art has as much reason 
for being as the earth and the sun. — 

— " The Iliad of Homer, the songs of David, the 
odes of Pindar, the tragedies of iEschylus, the Doric 
temples, the Gothic cathedrals, the plays of Shak- 
speare, all and each were made not for sport, but 
in grave earnest, in tears and smiles of suffering and 
loving men. — 

— " The Gothic cathedrals were built when the 
builder and the priest and the people were over- 
powered by their faith. Love and fear laid every 
stone. — 



254 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

" Our arts are happy hits. We are like the musi- 
cian on the lake, whose melody is sweeter than he 
knows." 

The discourse on " Eloquence " is more sys- 
tematic, more professorial, than many of the 
others. A few brief extracts will give the key 
to its general purport : — 

" Eloquence must be grounded on the plainest 
narrative. Afterwards, it may warm itself until it 
exhales symbols of every kind and color, speaks only 
through the most poetic forms ; but, first and last, it 
must still be at bottom a biblical statement of fact. — 

" He who will train himself to mastery in this 
science of persuasion must lay the emphasis of educa- 
tion, not on popular arts, but on character and in- 
sight. — 

— " The highest platform of eloquence is the moral 
sentiment. — 

— "Its great masters . . . were grave men, who 
preferred their integrity to their talent, and esteemed 
that object for which they toiled, whether the pros- 
perity of their country, or the laws, or a reformation, 
or liberty of speech, or of the press, or letters, or 
morals, as above the whole world and themselves 
also." 

" Domestic Life " begins with a picture of 
childhood so charming that it sweetens all the 
good counsel which follows like honey round 
the rim of the goblet which holds some tonic 
draught : — 



" farming: 1 255 

" Welcome to the parents the puny straggler, 
strong in his weakness, his little arms more irresistible 
than the soldier's, his lips touched with persuasion 
which Chatham and Pericles in manhood had not. 
His unaffected lamentations when he lifts up his 
voice on high, or, more beautiful, the sobbing child, 
— the face all liquid grief, as he tries to swallow his 
vexation, — ■ soften all hearts to pity, and to mirthful 
and clamorous compassion. The small despot asks so 
little that all reason and all nature are on his side. 
His ignorance is more charming than all knowledge, 
and his little sins more bewitching than any virtue. 
His flesh is angels' flesh, all alive. — All day, be- 
tween his three or four sleeps, he coos like a pigeon- 
house, sputters and spurs and puts on his faces of 
importance ; and when he fasts, the little Pharisee 
fails not to sound his trumpet before him." 

Emerson lias favored his audiences and read- 
ers with what he knew about " Farming." Dr. 
Emerson tells me that this discourse was read 
as an address before the " Middlesex Agri- 
cultural Society," and printed in the " Transac- 
tions " of that association. He soon found out 
that the hoe and the spade were not the tools he 
was meant to work with, but he had some gen- 
eral ideas about farming which he expressed 
very happily : — 

" The farmer's office is precise and important, but 
you must not try to paint him in rose-color ; you can- 



256 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

not make pretty compliments to fate and gravitation, 
whose minister he is. — This hard work will always 
be done by one kind of man ; not by scheming specu- 
lators, nor by soldiers, nor professors, nor readers of 
Tennyson ; but by men of endurance, deep-chested, 
long-winded, tough, slow and sure, and timely." 

Emerson's chemistry and physiology are not 
profound, but they are correct enough to make 
a fine richly colored poetical picture in his im- 
aginative presentation. He tells the Common- 
est facts so as to make them almost a sur- 
prise : — 

" By drainage we went down to a subsoil we did 
not know, and have found there is a Concord under 
old Concord, which we are now getting the best crops 
from ; a Middlesex under Middlesex ; and, in fine, 
that Massachusetts has a basement story more valu- 
able and that promises to pay a better rent than all 
the superstructure." 

In " Works and Days " there is much good 
reading, but I will call attention to one or two 
points only, as having a slight special interest of 
their own. The first is the boldness of Emer- 
son's assertions and predictions in matters be- 
longing to science and art. Thus, he speaks of 
" the transfusion of the blood, — which, in Paris, 
it was claimed, enables a man to change his blood 
as often as his linen ! " And once more, 



"books." 257 

" We are to have the balloon yet, and the next war 
will be fought in the air." 

Possibly ; but it is perhaps as safe to predict 
that it will be fought on wheels ; the soldiers on 
bicycles, the officers on tricycles. 

The other point I have marked is that we find 
in this Essay a prose version of the fine poem 
printed in " May-Day " under the title " Days. 5 ' 
I shall refer to this more particularly hereafter. 

It is wronging the Essay on " Books " to make 
extracts from it. It is all an extract, taken from 
years of thought in the lonely study and the pub- 
lic libraries. If I commit the wrong I have 
spoken of, it is under protest against myself. 
Every word of this Essay deserves careful read- 
ing. But here are a few sentences I have 
selected for the reader's consideration : — 

" There are books ; and it is practicable to read 
them because they are so few. — 

" I visit occasionally the Cambridge Library, and 
I can seldom go there without renewing the convic- 
tion that the best of it all is already within the four 
walls of my study at home. — 

" The three practical rules which I have to offer 
are, 1. Never read any book that is not a year old. 
2. Never read any but famed books. 3. Never 
read any but what you like, or, in Shakspeare's 
phrase, — 

17 



258 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

" ' No profit goes where is no pleasure ta'en ; 
In brief, Sir, study what you most affect.' " 

Emerson Las a good deal to say about conver- 
sation in his Essay on " Clubs," but nothing very 
notable on the special subject of the Essay. 
Perhaps his diary would have something of in- 
terest with reference to the " Saturday Club," of 
which he was a member, which, in fact, formed 
itself around him as a nucleus, and which he at- 
tended very regularly. But he was not given to 
personalities, and among the men of genius and 
of talent whom he met there no one was quieter, 
but none saw and heard and remembered more. 
He was hardly what Dr. Johnson would have 
called a " clubable " man, yet he enjoyed the 
meetings in his still way, or he would never have 
come from Concord so regularly to attend them. 
He gives two good reasons for the existence of a 
club like that of which I have been speaking : — 

" I need only hint the value of the club for bring- 
ing masters in their several arts to compare and 
expand their views, to come to an understanding on 
these points, and so that their united opinion shall 
have its just influence on public questions of educa- 
tion and politics." 

" A principal purpose also is the hospitality of the 
club, as a means of receiving a worthy foreigner with 
mutual advantage." 

I do not think " public questions of education 



"COURAGE." 259 

and politics " were very prominent at the social 
meetings of the " Saturday Club," but " worthy 
foreigners," and now and then one not so wor- 
thy, added variety to the meetings of the com- 
pany, which included a wide range of talents 
and callings. 

All that Emerson has to say about " Courage " 
is worth listening to, for he was a truly brave 
man in that sphere of action where there are 
more cowards than are found in the battle-field. 
He spoke his convictions fearlessly ; he carried 
the spear of Ithuriel, but he wore no breastplate 
save that which protects him 

" Whose armor is his honest thought, 
And simple truth his utmost skill." 

He mentions three qualities as attracting the 
wonder and reverence of mankind : 1. Disin- 
terestedness ; 2. Practical Power ; 3. Courage. 
" I need not show how much it is esteemed, for 
the people give it the first rank. They forgive 
everything to it. And any man who puts his 
life in peril in a cause which is esteemed be- 
comes the darling of all men." — There are 
good and inspiriting lessons for young and 
old in this Essay or Lecture, which closes with 
the spirited ballad of " George Mdiver," writ- 
ten " by a lady to whom all the particulars of 
the fact are exactly known." 



260 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

Men vail read any essay or listen to any lec- 
ture which has for its subject, like the one 
now before me, " Success." Emerson complains 
of the same things in America which Carlyle 
groaned over in England : — 

" We countenance each other in this life of show, 
puffing advertisement, and manufacture of public 
opinion ; and excellence is lost sight of in the hunger 
for sudden performance and praise. — 

"Now, though I am by no means sure that the 
reader will assent to all my propositions, yet I think 
we shall agree in my first rule for success, — that we 
shall drop the brag and the advertisement and take 
Michael Angelo's course, ' to confide in one's self and 
be something of worth and value.' " 

Beading about " Success " is after all very 
much like reading in old books of alchemy. 
" How not to do it," is the lesson of all the 
books and treatises. Gebei* and Albertus Mag- 
nus, Roger Bacon and Raymond Lully, and the 
whole crew of "pauperes alcumistae," all give the 
most elaborate directions showing their student 
how to fail in transmuting Saturn into Luna 
and Sol and making a billionaire of himself. 
" Success " in its vulgar sense, — the gaining of 
money and position, — ■ is not to be reached by 
following the rules of an instructor. Our "self- 
made men," who govern the .country by their 
wealth and influence, have found their place by 



"OLD AGE." 261 

adapting themselves to the particular circum- 
stances in which they were placed, and not by 
studying the broad maxims of " Poor Richard," 
or any other moralist or economist. — For such 
as these is meant the cheap cynical saying quoted 
by Emerson, " Mien ne reussit mieux que le 
succes." 

But this is not the aim and end of Emerson's 
teaching : — 

"I fear the popular notion of success stands in 
direct opposition in all points to the real and whole- 
some success. One adores public opinion, the other 
private opinion ; one fame, the other desert ; one 
feats, the other humility ; one lucre, the other love ; 
one monopoly, and the other hospitality of mind." 

And so, though there is no alchemy in this 
Lecture, it is profitable reading, assigning its 
true value to the sterling gold of character, the 
gaining of which is true success, as against the 
brazen idol of the market-place. 

The Essay on " Old Age " has a special value 
from its containing two personal reminiscences : 
one of the venerable Josiah Quincy, a brief 
mention ; the other the detailed record of a visit 
in the year 1825, Emerson being then twenty- 
two years old, to ex-President John Adams, soon 
after the election of his son to the Presidency. 
It is enough to allude to these, which every 
reader will naturally turn to first of all. 



262 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

But many thoughts worth gathering are 
dropped along these pages. He recounts the 
benefits of age ; the perilous capes and shoals it 
has weathered ; the fact that a success more or 
less signifies little, so that the old man may go 
below his own mark with impunity ; the feeling 
that he has found expression, — that his con- 
dition, in particular and in general, allows the 
utterance of his mind ; the pleasure of complet- 
ing his secular affairs, leaving all in the best 
posture for the future : — 

" When life has been well spent, age is a loss of 
what it can well spare, muscular strength, organic 
instincts, gross bulk, and works that belong to these. 
"But the central wisdom which was old in infancy is 
young in fourscore years, and dropping off obstruc- 
tions, leaves in happy subjects the mind purified and 
wise. I have heard that whoever loves is in no con- 
dition old. I have heard that whenever the name of 
man is spoken, the doctrine of immortality is an- 
nounced ; it cleaves to his constitution. The mode 
of it baffles our wit, and no whisper comes to us from 
the other side. But the inference from the working 
of intellect, hiving knowledge, hiving skill, — at the 
end of life just ready to be born, — affirms the in- 
spirations of affection and of the moral sentiment." 

Other literary labors of Emerson during this 
period were the Introduction to " Plutarch's 
Morals " in 1870, and a Preface to William El- 



VISIT TO CALIFORNIA. 263 

lery Channing's Poem, " The Wanderer," in 
1872. He made a speech at Howard University, 
Washington, in 1872. 

In the year 1871 Emerson made a visit to 
California with a very pleasant company, con- 
cerning which Mr. John M. Forbes, one of whose 
sons married Emerson's daughter Edith, writes 
to me as follows. Professor James B. Thayer, to 
whom he refers, has more recently written and 
published an account of this trip, from which 
some extracts will follow Mr. Forbes's letter : — 

Boston, February 6, 1884. 

Mv dear Dr., — What little I can give will be 
of a very rambling character. 

One of the first memories of Emerson which comes 
up is my meeting him on the steamboat at returning 
from Detroit East. I persuaded him to stop over at 
Niagara, which he had never seen. We took a car- 
riage and drove around the circuit. It was in early 
summer, perhaps in 1848 or 1849. When we came 
to Table Rock on the British side, our driver took us 
down on the outer part of the rock in the carriage. 
We passed on by rail, and the next day's papers 
brought us the telegraphic news that Table Rock had 
fallen over ; perhaps we were among the last persons 
on it ! 

About 1871 I made up a party for California, in- 
cluding Mr. Emerson, his daughter Edith, and a 

number of gay young people. We drove with B , 

the famous Vermont coachman, up to the Geysers, 



264 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

and then made the journey to the Yosemite Valley 
by wagon and on horseback. I wish I could give 
you more than a mere outline picture of the sage at 
this time. With the thermometer at 100° he would 
sometimes drive with the buffalo robes drawn up over 
his knees, apparently indifferent to the weather, gaz- 
ing on the new and grand scenes of mountain and 
valley through which we journeyed. I especially 
remember once, when riding down the steep side of a 
mountain, his reins hanging loose, the bit entirely 
out of the horse's mouth, without his being aware 
that this was an unusual method of riding Pegasus, 
so fixed was his gaze into space, and so unconscious 
was he, at the moment, of his surroundings. 

In San Francisco he visited with us the dens of the 
opium smokers, in damp cellars, with rows of shelves 
around, on which were deposited the stupefied Mon- 
golians ; perhaps the lowest haunts of humanity to 
be found in the world. The contrast between them 
and the serene eye and undisturbed brow of the sage 
was a sight for all beholders. 

When we reached Salt Lake City on our way 
home he made a point of calling on Brigham Young, 
then at the summit of his power. The Prophet, or 
whatever he was called, was a burly, bull-necked man 
of hard sense, really leading a great industrial army. 
He did not seem to appreciate who his visitor was, at 
any rate gave no sign of so doing, and the chief in- 
terest of the scene was the wide contrast between 
these leaders of spiritual and of material forces. 

I regret not having kept any notes of what was 



VISIT TO CALIFORNIA. 265 

said on this and other occasions, but if by chance you 
could get hold of Professor J. B. Thayer, who was 
one of our party, he could no doubt give you some 
notes that would be valuable. 

Perhaps the latest picture that remains in my mind 
of our friend is his wandering along the beaches and 
under the trees at Naushon, no doubt carrying home 
large stealings from my domain there, which lost 
none of their value from being transferred to his 
pages. Next to his private readings which he gave 
us there, the most notable recollection is that of his 
intense amusement at some comical songs which our 
young people used to sing, developing a sense of 
humor which a superficial observer would hardly 
have discovered, but which you and I know he pos- 
sessed in a marked degree. 

Yours always, 

J. M. Forbes. 

Professor James B. Thayer's little book, "A 
Western Journey with Mr. Emerson," is a very 
entertaining account of the same trip concerning 
which Mr. Forbes wrote the letter just given. 
Professor Thayer kindly read many of his notes 
to me before his account was published, and al- 
lows me to make such use of the book as I see 
fit. Such liberty must not be abused, and I will 
content myself with a few passages in which 
Emerson has a part. No extract will interest 
the reader more than the following : — 

" ' How can Mr. Emerson,' said one of the younger 



266 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

members of the party to me that day, < be so agree- 
able, all the time, without getting tired ! ' It was 
the naive expression of what we all had felt. There 
was never a. more agreeable travelling companion ; 
he was always accessible, cheerful, sympathetic, con- 
siderate, tolerant ; and there was always that same 
respectful interest in those with whom he talked, even 
the humblest, which raised them in their own estima- 
tion. One thing particularly impressed me, — the 
sense that he seemed to have of a certain great am- 
plitude of time and leisure. It was the behavior of 
one who really believed in an immortal life, and had 
adjusted his conduct accordingly ; so that, beautiful 
and grand as the natural objects were, among which 
our journey lay, they were matched by the sweet ele- 
vation of character, and the spiritual charm of our 
gracious friend. Years afterwards, on that memo- 
rable day of his funeral at Concord, I found that a 
sentence from his own Essay on Immortality haunted 
my mind, and kept repeating itself all the day long ; 
it seemed to point to the sources of his power. Mean- 
time the true disciples saw through the letter the doc- 
trine of eternity, which dissolved the poor corpse, 
and Nature also, and gave grandeur to the passing 
hour." 

This extract will be appropriately followed by 
another alluding to the same subject. 

" The next evening, Sunday, the twenty-third, Mr. 
Emerson read his address on 'Immortality,' at Dr. 
Stebbins's church. It was the first time that he had 



VIS/T TO CALIFORNIA. 267 

spoken on the Western coast ; never did he speak 
better. It was, in the main, the same noble Essay 
that has since been printed. 

" At breakfast the next morning we had the newsr 
paper, the ' Alta California.' It gave a meagre out- 
line of the address, but praised it warmly, and closed 
with the following observations : ' All left the church 
feeling that an elegant tribute had been paid to the 
creative genius of the Great First Cause, and that a 
masterly use of the English language had contributed 
to that end.' " 

The story used to be told that after the Rev- 
erend Horace Holley had delivered a prayer on 
some public occasion, Major Ben. Russell, of 
ruddy face and ruffled shirt memory, Editor of 
"The Columbian Centinel," spoke of it in his 
paper the next day as " the most eloquent prayer 
ever addressed to a Boston audience." 

The "Alta California's" "elegant tribute" 
is not quite up to this rhetorical altitude. 

" ' The minister,' said he, ' is in no danger of losing 
his position ; he represents the moral sense and the 
humanities.' He spoke of his own reasons for leaving 
the pulpit, and added that ' some one had lately come 
to him whose conscience troubled him about retaining 
the name of Christian ; he had replied that he him- 
self had no difficulty about it. When he was called 
a Platonist, or a Christian, or a Republican, he wel- 
comed it. It did not bind him to what he did not 
like. What is the use of going about and setting up . 
a flag of negation ? ' " 



268 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

" I made bold to ask him what he had in mind in 
naming his recent course of lectures at Cambridge, 
* The Natural History of the Intellect.' This opened 
a very interesting conversation ; but, alas ! I could 
recall but little of it, — little more than the mere 
hintings of what he said. He cared very little for 
metaphysics. But he thought that as a man grows 
he observes certain facts about his own mind, — 
about memory, for example. These he had set down 
from time to time. As for making any methodical 
history, he did not undertake it." 

Emerson met Brigham Young at Salt Lake 
City, as has been mentioned, but neither seems 
to have made much impression upon the other. 
Emerson spoke of the Mormons. Some one had 
said, " They impress the common people, through 
their imagination, by Bible-names and imagery." 
" Yes," he said, " it is an after-clap of Puritan- 
ism. But one would think that after this Father 
Abraham could go no further." 

The charm of Boswell's Life of Johnson is that 
it not merely records his admirable conversation, 
but also gives us many of those lesser peculiari- 
ties which are as necessary to a true biography 
as lights and shades to a portrait on canvas. 
We are much obliged to Professor Thayer there- 
fore for the two following pleasant recollections 
which he has been good-natured enough to pre- 



VISIT TO CALIFORNIA. 269 

serve for us, and with which we will take leave 
of his agreeable little volume : — 

"At breakfast we had, among other things, pie. 
This article at breakfast was one of Mr. Emerson's 
weaknesses. A pie stood before him now. He 
offered to help somebody from it, who declined ; 
and then one or two others, who also declined ; and 

then Mr. ; he too declined. ' But Mr. ! ' 

Mr. Emerson remonstrated, with humorous empha- 
sis, .thrusting the knife under a piece of the pie, and 
putting the entire weight of his character into his 
manner, — ' but Mr. , what is pie for ? ' " 

A near friend of mine, a lady, was once in the 
cars with Emerson, and when they stopped for 
the refreshment of the passengers he was very 
desirous of procuring something at the station 
for her solace. Presently he advanced upon her 
with a cup of tea in one hand and a wedge of 
pie in the other, — such a wedge ! She could 
hardly have been more dismayed if one of Cae- 
sar's cunei, or wedges of soldiers, had made a 
charge against her. 

Yet let me say here that pie, often foolishly r 
abused, is a good creature, at the right time and 
in angles of thirty or forty degrees. In semi- 
circles and quadrants it may sometimes prove 
too much for delicate stomachs. But here was 
Emerson, a hopelessly confirmed pie-eater, never, 
so far as I remember, complaining of dyspepsia ; 






270 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

and there, on the other side, was Carlyle, feeding 
largely on wholesome oatmeal, groaning with in- 
digestion all his days, and living with half his 
self-consciousness habitually centred beneath his 
diaphragm. 

Like his friend Carlyle and like Tennyson, 
Emerson had a liking for a whiff of tobacco- 
smoke : — 

" When alone," he said, " he rarely cared to finish 
a whole cigar. But in company it was singular to 
see how different it was. To one who found it 
difficult to meet people, as he did, the effect of a 
cigar was agreeable ; one who is smoking may be as 
silent as he likes, and yet be good company. And so 
Hawthorne used to say that he found it. On this 
journey Mr. Emerson generally smoked a single ci- 
gar after our mid-day dinner, or after tea, and occa- 
sionally after both. This was multiplying, several 
times over, anything that was usual with him at 
home." 

Professor Thayer adds in a note : — 

" Like Milton, Mr. Emerson ' was extraordinary 
temperate in his Diet,' and he used even less tobacco. 
Milton's quiet day seems to have closed regularly 
with a pipe ; he ' supped,' we are told, upon . . . 
some light thing; and after a pipe of tobacco and a 
glass of water went to bed." 

As Emerson's name has been connected with 
that of Milton in its nobler aspects, it can do no 



BURNING OF HIS HOUSE. 271 

harm to contemplate him, like Milton, indulging 
in this semi-philosophical luxury. 

One morning in July, 1872, Mr. and Mrs. 
Emerson woke to find their room filled with 
smoke and fire coming through the floor of a 
closet in the room over them. The alarm was 
given, and the neighbors gathered and did their 
best to put out the flames, but the upper part of 
the house was destroyed, and with it were burned 
many papers of value to Emerson, including his 
father's sermons. Emerson got wet and chilled, 
and it seems too probable that the shock hast- 
ened that gradual loss of memory which came 
over his declining years. 

His kind neighbors did all they could to save 
his property and relieve his temporary needs. 
A study was made ready for him in the old 
Court House, and the " Old Manse," which had 
sheltered his grandfather, and others nearest to 
him, received him once more as its tenant. 

On the 15th of October he spoke at a dinner 
given in New York in honor of James Anthony 
Froude, the historian, and in the course of this 
same month he set out on his third visit to 
Europe, accompanied by his daughter Ellen. 
We have little to record of this visit, which was 
suggested as a relief and recreation while his 
home was being refitted for him. He went to 
Egypt, but so far as I have learned the Sphinx 



272 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

had no message for him, and in the state of 
mind in which he found himself upon the mys- 
terious and dream-compelling Nile it may be 
suspected that the landscape with its palms and 
pyramids was an unreal vision, — that, as to his 
Humble-bee, 

" All was picture as he passed." 

But while he was voyaging his friends had not 
forgotten him. The sympathy with him in his 
misfortune was general and profound. It did 
not confine itself to expressions of feeling, but 
a spontaneous movement organized itself almost 
without effort. If any such had been needed, 
the attached friend whose name is appended to 
the Address to the Subscribers to the Fund for 
rebuilding Mr. Emerson's house would have 
been as energetic in this new cause as he had 
been in the matter of procuring the reprint of 
" Sartor Resartus." I have his kind permission 
to publish the whole correspondence relating to 
the friendly project so happily carried out. 

To the Subscribers to the Fund for the Rebuilding of Mr. 
Emerson's House, after the Fire of July 24, 1872 : 

The death of Mr. Emerson has removed any objec- 
tion which may have before existed to the printing 
of the following correspondence. I have now caused 
this to be done, that each subscriber may have the 
satisfaction of possessing a copy of the touching and 



STORY OF ITS REBUILDING. 273 

affectionate letters in which he expressed his delight 
in this, to him, most unexpected demonstration of 
personal regard and attachment, in the offer to restore 
for him his ruined home. 

No enterprise of the kind was ever more fortunate 
and successful in its purpose and in its results. The 
prompt and cordial response to the proposed sub- 
scription was most gratifying. No contribution was 
solicited from any one. The simple suggestion to 
a few friends of Mr. Emerson that an opportunity 
was now offered to be of service to him was all that 
was needed. From the first day on which it was 
made, the day after the fire, letters began to come in, 
with cheques for large and small amounts, so that 
in less than three weeks I was enabled to send to 
Judge Hoar the sum named in his letter as received 
by llim on the 13th of August, and presented by him 
to Mr. Emerson the next morning, at the Old Manse, 
with fitting words. 

Other subscriptions were afterwards received, in- 
creasing the amount on my book to eleven thousand 
six hundred and twenty dollars. A part of this was 
handed directly to the builder at Concord. The bal- 
ance was sent to Mr. Emerson October 7, and ac- 
knowledged by him in his letter of October 8, 1872. 

All the friends of Mr. Emerson who knew of the 
plan which was proposed to rebuild his house, seemed 
to feel that it was a privilege to be allowed to express 
in this way the love and veneration with which he 
was regarded, and the deep debt of gratitude which 
they owed to him, and there is no doubt that a much 
18 



274 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

larger amount would have been readily and gladly- 
offered, if it had been required, for the object in 
view. 

Those who have had the happiness to join in this 
friendly " conspiracy " may well take pleasure in the 
thought that what they have done has had the effect 
to lighten the load of care and anxiety which the 
calamity of the fire brought with it to Mr. Emerson, 
and thus perhaps to prolong for some precious years 
the serene and noble life that was so dear to all 
of us. 

My thanks are due to the friends who have made 
me the bearer of this message of good-will. 

Le Baron Russell. 

Boston, May 8, 1882. 

Boston, August 13, 1872. 
Dear Mr. Emerson : • 

It seems to have been the spontaneous desire of 
your friends, on hearing of the burning of your house, 
to be allowed the pleasure of rebuilding it. 

A few of them have united for this object, and 
now request your acceptance of the amount which 
I have to-day deposited to your order at the Concord 
Bank, through the kindness of our friend, Judge 
Hoar. They trust that you will receive it as an ex- 
pression of sincere regard and affection from friends, 
who will, one and all, esteem it a great privilege to 
be permitted to assist in the restoration of your 
home. 

And if, in their eagerness to participate in so grate- 
ful a work, they may have exceeded the estimate of 



STORY OF ITS REBUILDING. 275 

your architect as to what is required for that purpose, 
they beg that you will devote the remainder to such 
other objects as may be most convenient to you. 
Very sincerely yours, 

Le Baron Eussell. 

Concord, August 14, 1872. 
Dr. Le B. Russell: 

Dear Sir, — I received your letters, with the check 
for ten thousand dollars inclosed, from Mr. Barrett 
last evening. This morning I deposited it to Mr. 
Emerson's credit in the Concord National Bank, and 
took a bank book for him, with his little balance 
entered at the top, and this following, and carried it 
to him with your letter. I told him, by way of pre- 
lude, that some of his friends had made him treasurer 
of an association who wished him to go to England 
and examine Warwick Castle and other noted houses 
that had been recently injured by fire, in order to get 
the best ideas possible for restoration, and then to 
apply them to a house which the association was 
formed to restore in this neighborhood. 

When he understood the thing and had read your 
letter, he seemed very deeply moved. He said that 
he had been allowed so far in life to stand on his 
own feet, and that he hardly knew what to say, — 
that the kindness of his friends was very great. I 
said what I thought was best in reply, and told him 
that this was the spontaneous act of friends, who 
wished the privilege of expressing in this way their 
respect and affection, and was done only by those 



276 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

who thought it a privilege to do so. I mentioned 
Hillard as you desired, and also Mrs. Tappan, who, it 
seems, had written to him and offered any assistance 
he might need, to the extent of five thousand dollars, 
personally. 

I think it is all right, but he said he must see the 
list of contributors, and would then say what he had 
to say about it. He told me that Mr. F. C. Lowell, 
who was his classmate and old friend, Mr. Bangs, 
Mrs. Gurney, and a few other friends, had already 
sent him five thousand dollars, which he seemed to 
think was as much as he could bear. This makes 
the whole a very gratifying result, and perhaps ex- 
plains the absence of some names on your book. 

I am glad that Mr. Emerson, who is feeble and ill, 
can learn what a debt of obligation his friends feel to 
him, and thank you heartily for what you have done 
about it. Very truly yours, 

E. R. Hoar. 

Concord, August 16, 1872. 
My Dear Le Baron: 

I have wondered and melted over your letter and 

its accompaniments till it is high time that I should 

reply to it, if I can. My misfortunes, as I have lived 

along so far in this world, have been so few that I 

have never needed to ask direct aid of the host of 

good men and women who have cheered my life, 

though many a gift has come to me. And this late 

calamity, however rude and devastating, soon began 

to look more wonderful in its salvages than in its 

ruins, so that I can hardly feel any right to this 



STORY OF ITS REBUILDING. 277 

munificent endowment with which you, and my other 
friends through you, have astonished me. But I 
cannot read your letter or think of its message with- 
out delight, that my companions and friends bear me 
so noble a good-will, nor without some new aspirations 
in the old heart toward a better deserving. Judge 
Hoar has, up to this time, withheld from me the 
names of my benefactors, but you may be sure that I 
shall not rest till I have learned them, every one, to 
repeat to myself at night and at morning. 

Your affectionate friend and debtor, 

E. W. Emerson. 
Dr. Le Baron Russell 

Concord, October 8, 1872. 
My dear Doctor Le Baron : 

I received last night your two notes, and the 
cheque, enclosed in one of them, for one thousand 
and twenty dollars. 

Are my friends bent on killing me with kindness ? 
No, you will say, but to make me live longer. I 
thought myself sufficiently loaded with benefits al- 
ready, and you add more and more. It appears that 
you all will rebuild my house and rejuvenate me by 
sending me in my old days abroad on a young man's 
excursion. 

I am a lover of men, but this recent wonderful 
experience of their tenderness surprises and occupies 
my thoughts day by day. Now that I have all or 
almost all the names of the men and women who 
have conspired in this kindness to me (some of whom 
I have never personally known), I please myself with 



278 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

the thought of meeting each and asking, Why have 
we not met before ? Why have you not told me that 
we thought alike ? Life is not so long, nor sympathy 
of thought so common, that we can spare the so- 
ciety of those with whom we best agree. Well, 't is 
probably my own fault by sticking ever to my soli- 
tude. Perhaps it is not too late to learn of these 
friends a better lesson. 

Thank them for me whenever you meet them, and 
say to them that I am not wood or stone, if I have 
not yet trusted myself so far as to go to each one of 
them directly. 

My wife insists that I shall also send her acknowl- 
edgments to them and you. 

Yours and theirs affectionately, 

R. W. Emerson. 

Dr. Le Baron Russell. 

The following are the names of the subscrib- 
ers to the fund for rebuilding Mr. Emerson's 
house : — 

Mrs. Anne S. Hooper. Friends in New York and 
Miss Alice S. Hooper. Philadelphia, through Mr. 

Mrs. Caroline Tappan. Williams. 

Miss Ellen S. Tappan. Mr. William Whiting. 

Miss Mary A. Tappan. Mr. Frederick Beck. 

Mr. T. G. Appleton. Mr. H. P. Kidder. 

Mrs. Henry Edwards. Mrs. Abel Adams. 

Miss Susan E. Dorr. Mrs. George Faulkner. 

Misses Wigglesworth. Hon. E. R. Hoar. 
Mr. Edward Wigglesworth. Mr. James B. Thayer. 

Mr. J. Elliot Cabot. Mr. John M. Forbes. 

Mrs. Sarah S. Russell. Mr. James H. Beal. 



RECEPTION AT CONCORD. 279 

Mrs. Anna C. Lodge. Mr. T. Jefferson Coolidge. 

Mr. H. H. Hunnewell. Mrs. S. Cabot. 

Mr. James A. Dupee. Mrs. Anna C. Lowell. 

Mrs. M. F. Sayles. Miss Helen L. Appleton. 

J. R. Osgood & Co. Mr. Eichard Soule. 

Mr. Francis Geo. Shaw. Dr. R. W. Hooper. 

Mr. William P. Mason. Mr. William Gray. 

Mr. Sam'l G. Ward. Mr. J. I. Bowditch. 

Mr. Geo. C. Ward. Mrs. Lucia J. Briggs. 

Mr. John £. Williams. Dr. Le Baron Russell. 

4 

In May, 1873, Emerson returned to Concord. 
His friends and fellow-citizens received him with 
every token of affection and reverence. A set 
of signals was arranged to announce his arrival. 
Carriages were in readiness for him and his fam- 
ily, a band greeted him with music, and passing 
under a triumphal arch, he was driven to his 
renewed old home amidst the welcomes and the 
blessings of his loving and admiring friends and 
neighbors. 



CHAPTER XII. 

1873-1878. Mr. 70-75. 

Publication of " Parnassus." — Emerson Nominated as Candi- 
date for the Office of Lord Eector of Glasgow University. — 
Publication of " Letters and Social Aims." Contents : 
Poetry and Imagination. — Social Aims. — Eloquence. — 
Kesources. — The Comic. — Quotation and Originality. — 
Progress of Culture. — Persian Poetry. — Inspiration. — 
Greatness. — Immortality. — Address at the Unveiling of 
the Statue of " The Minute-Man " at Concord.— Publication 
of Collected Poems. 

In December, 1874, Emerson published " Par- 
nassus," a Collection of Poems by British and 
American authors. Many readers may like to see 
his subdivisions and arrangement of the pieces 
he has brought together. They are as follows : 
" Nature." — " Human Life." — " Intellectual." 

— " Contemplation." — " Moral and Religious." 

— " Heroic." — " Personal." — " Pictures."-— 
" Narrative Poems and Ballads." — " Songs." — 
" Dirges and Pathetic Poems." — " Comic and 
Humorous." — " Poetry of Terror." — " Oracles 
and Counsels." 

I have borrowed so sparingly from the rich 
mine of Mr. George Willis Cooke's " Ralph 



"PARNASSUS." 281 

Waldo Emerson, His Life, Writings, and Philos- 
ophy," that I am pleased to pay him the respect- 
ful tribute of taking a leaf from his excellent 
work. 

" This collection," he says, 

" was the result of his habit, pursued for many years, 
of copying into his commonplace book any poem 
which specially pleased him. Many of these favorites 
had been read to illustrate his lectures on the English 
poets. The book has no worthless selections, almost 
everything it contains bearing the stamp of genius 
and worth. Yet Emerson's personality is seen in its 
many intellectual and serious poems, and in the small 
number of its purely religious selections. With two 
or three exceptions he copies none of those devotional 
poems which have attracted devout souls. — His poet- 
ical sympathies are shown in the fact that one third 
of the selections are from the seventeenth century. 
Shakespeare is drawn on more largely than any other, 
no less than eighty-eight selections being made from 
him. The names of George Herbert, Herrick, Ben 
Jonson, and Milton frequently appear. Wordsworth 
appears forty-three times, and stands next to Shake- 
speare ; while Burns, Byron, Scott, Tennyson, and 
Chaucer make up the list of favorites. Many little 
known pieces are included, and some whose merit is 
other than poetical. — This selection of poems is emi- 
nently that of a poet of keen intellectual tastes. It 
is not popular in character, omitting many public 
favorites, and introducing very much which can never 



282 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

be acceptable to the general reader. The Preface is 
full of interest for its comments on many of the 
poems and poets appearing in these selections." 

I will only add to Mr. Cooke's criticism these 
two remarks : First, that I have found it impos- 
sible to know under which of his divisions to 
look for many of the poems I was in search of ; 
and as, in the earlier copies at least, there was 
no paged index where each author's pieces were 
collected together, one had to hunt up his frag- 
ments with no little loss of time and patience, 
under various heads, " imitating the careful 
search that Isis made for the mangled body of 
Osiris." The other remark is that each one of 
Emerson's American fellow-poets from whom he 
has quoted would gladly have spared almost any 
of the extracts from the poems of his brother- 
bards, if the editor would only have favored us 
with some specimens of his own poetry, with a sin- 
gle line of which he has not seen fit to indulge us. 

In 1874 Emerson received the nomination 
by the independent party among the students of 
Glasgow University for the office of Lord Rector. 
He received five hundred votes against seven 
hundred for Disraeli, who was elected. He says 
in a letter to Dr. J. Hutchinson Sterling : — 

" I count that vote as quite the fairest laurel that 
has ever fallen on me ; and I cannot but feel deeply 



"LETTERS AND SOCIAL AIMS:' 283 

grateful to my young friends in the University, and 
to yourself, who have been my counsellor and my too 
partial advocate." 

Mr. Cabot informs us in his Prefatory Note 
to " Letters and Social Aims," that the proof 
sheets of this volume, now forming the eighth 
of the collected works, showed even before the 
burning of his house and the illness which fol- 
lowed from the shock, that his loss of memory 
and of mental grasp was such as to make it 
unlikely that he would in any case have been 
able to accomplish what he had undertaken. 
Sentences, even whole pages, were repeated, and 
there was a want of order beyond what even he 
would have tolerated : — 

" Xhere is nothing here that he did not write, and 
he gave his full approval to whatever was done in 
the way of selection and arrangement; but I cannot 
say that he applied his mind very closely to the 
matter." 

This volume contains eleven Essays, the sub- 
jects of which, as just enumerated, are very va- 
rious. The longest and most elaborate paper 
is that entitled "Poetry and Imagination." I 
have room for little more than the enumeration 
of the different headings of this long Essay. By 
these it will be seen how wide a ground it covers. 
They are " Introductory ; " " Poetry ; " " Imag- 






284 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

ination ; " " Veracity ; " " Creation ; " " Melody, 
Rhythm, Form ; " " Bards and Trouveurs ; " 
" Morals ; " " Transcendency." Many thoughts 
with which we are familiar are reproduced, 
expanded, and illustrated in this Essay. Unity 
in multiplicity, the symbolism of nature, and 
others of his leading ideas appear in new phrases, 
not unwelcome, for they look fresh in every re- 
statement. It would be easy to select a score 
of pointed sayings, striking images, large gener- 
alizations. Some of these we find repeated in 
his verse. Thus : — 

" Michael Angelo is largely filled with the Creator 
that made and makes men. How much of the original 
craft remains in him, and he a mortal man ! " 

And so in the well remembered lines of " The 
Problem " : — 

" Himself from God he could not free." 

" He knows that he did not make his thought, — 
no, his thought made him, and made the sun and 
stars." 

" Art might obey but not surpass. 
The passive Master lent his hand 
To the vast soul that o'er him planned." 

Hope is at the bottom of every Essay of 
Emerson's as it was at the bottom of Pandora's 
box : — 

" I never doubt the riches of nature, the gifts of 



"ELOQUENCE" 285 

the future, the immense wealth of the mind. yes, 
poets we shall have, mythology, symbols, religion of 
our own. 

— " Sooner or later that which is now life shall be 
poetry, and every fair and manly trait shall add a 
richer strain to the song." 

Under the title " Social Aims " he gives some 
wise counsel concerning manners an$ conversa- 
tion. One of these precepts will serve as a 
specimen — if we have met with it before it is 
none the worse for wear : — 

" Shun the negative side. Never worry people with 
your contritions, nor with dismal views of politics or 
society. Never name sickness ; even if you could 
trust yourself on that perilous topic, beware of un- 
muzzling a valetudinarian, who will give you enough 
of it." 

We have had one Essay on " Eloquence " al- 
ready. One extract from this new discourse on 
the same subject must serve our turn : — - 

" These are ascending stairs, — a good voice, win- 
ning manners, plain speech, chastened, however, by 
the schools into correctness ; but we must come to the 
main matter, of power of statement, — know your 
fact ; hug your fact. For the essential thing is heat, 
and heat comes of sincerity. Speak what you know 
and believe ; and are personally in it ; and are an- 
swerable for every word. Eloquence is the power to 



286 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

translate a truth into language perfectly intelligible 
/ to the person to whom you speak." 

The italics are Emerson's. 

If our learned and excellent John Cotton used 
to sweeten his mouth before going to bed with 
a bit of Calvin, we may as wisely sweeten and 
strengthen our sense of existence with a morsel or 
two from Jhnerson's Essay on " Resources " : — 

" A Schopenhauer, with logic and learning and wit, 
teaching pessimism, — teaching that this is the worst 
of all possible worlds, and inferring that sleep is bet- 
ter than waking, and death than sleep, — all the tal- 
ent in the world cannot save him from being odious. 
But if instead of these negatives you give me affirma- 
tives ; if you tell me that there is always life for the 
living ; that what man has done man can do ; that 
this world belongs to the energetic ; that there is al- 
ways a way to everything desirable ; that every man 
is provided, in the new bias of his faculty, with a key 
to nature, and that man only rightly knows himself 
as far as he has experimented on things, — I am in- 
vigorated, put into genial and working temper; the 
horizon opens, and we are full of good-will and grati- 
tude to the Cause of Causes." 

The Essay or Lecture on " The Comic " may 
have formed a part of a series he had contem- 
plated on the intellectual processes. Two or three 
sayings in it will show his view sufficiently : — ■ 

" The essence of all jokes, of all comedy, seems to 



" QUOTATION AND ORIGINALITY" 287 

be an honest or well-intended halfness ; a non-per- 
formance of what is pretended to be performed, at 
the same time that one is giving loud pledges of 
performance. 

" If the essence of the Comic be the contrast in the 
intellect between the idea and the false performance, 
there is good reason why we should be affected by the 
exposure. We have no deeper interest than our in- 
tegrity, and that we should be made aware by joke 
and by stroke of any lie we entertain. Besides, a 
perception of the comic seems to be a balance-wheel 
in our metaphysical structure. It appears to be an 
essential element in a fine character. — A rogue alive 
to the ludicrous is still convertible. If that sense is 
lost, his fellow-men can do little for him." 

These and other sayings of like purport are 
illustrated by well-preserved stories and anec- 
dotes not for the most part of very recent date. 

" Quotation and Originality " furnishes the 
key to Emerson's workshop. He believed in 
quotation, and borrowed from everybody and 
every book. Not in any stealthy or shame-faced 
way, but proudly, royally, as a king borrows from 
one of his attendants the coin that bears his own 
image and superscription. 

" All minds quote. Old and new make the warp 
and woof of every moment. There is no thread that 
is not a twist of these two strands. — We quote not 



288 RALPn WALDO EMERSON. 

only books and proverbs, but arts, sciences, religion, 
customs, and laws; nay, we quote temples and houses, 
tables and chairs by imitation. — 

" The borrowing is often honest enough and comes 
of magnanimity and stoutness. A great man quotes 
bravely, and will not draw on his invention when his 
memory serves him with a word as good. 

" Next to the originator of a good sentence is the 
first quoter of it." — 

— " The Progress of Culture," his second Phi 
Beta Kappa oration, has already been men- 
tioned. 

— The lesson of self - reliance, which he is 
never tired of inculcating, is repeated and en- 
forced in the Essay on " Greatness." 

"There are certain points of identity in which 
these masters agree. Self-respect is the early form in 
which greatness appears. — Stick to your own ; don't 
inculpate yourself in the local, social, or national 
crime, but follow the path your genius traces like the 
galaxy of heaven for you to walk in. 

" Every mind has a new compass, a new direction 
of its own, differencing its genius and aim from every 
other mind. — We call this specialty the bias of each 
individual. And none of us will ever accomplish any- 
thing excellent or commanding except when he listens 
to this whisper which is heard by him alone." 

If to follow this native bias is the first rule, 
the second is concentration. — To the bias of the 



" INSPIRATION." 289 

individual mind must be added the most catholic 
receptivity for the genius of others. 

" Shall I tell you the secret of the true scholar ? 
It is this : Every man I meet is my master in some 
point, and in that I learn of him." — 

" The man whom we have not seen, in whom no 
regard of self degraded the adorer of the laws, — 
who by governing himself governed others ; sportive 
in manner, but inexorable in act ; who sees longevity 
in his cause ; whose aim is always distinct to him ; 
who is suffered to be himself in society ; who carries 
fate in his eye ; — ho it is whom we seek, encouraged 
in every good hour that here or hereafter he shall be 
found." 

What has Emerson to tell us of "Inspira- 
tion?" 

"I believe that nothing great or lasting can be 
done except by inspiration, by leaning on the secret 
augury. — 

" How many sources of inspiration can we count ? 
As many as our affinities. But to a practical purpose 
we may reckon a few of these." 

I will enumerate them briefly as he gives 
them, but not attempting to reproduce his com- 
ments on each : — 

1. Health. 2. The experience of writing let- 
ters. 3. The renewed sensibility which comes 
after seasons of decay or eclipse of the faculties. 

19 



290 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

4. The power, of the will. 5. Atmospheric 
causes, especially the influence of morning. 6. 
Solitary converse with nature. 7. Solitude of 
itself, like that of a country inn in summer, and 
of a city hotel in winter. 8. Conversation. 9. 
New poetry ; by which, he says, he means chiefly 
old poetry that is new to the reader. 

" Every book is good to read which sets the reader 
in a working mood." 

What can promise more than an Essay by 
Emerson on " Immortality " ? It is to be feared 
that many readers will transfer this note of in- 
terrogation to the Essay itself. What is the 
definite belief of Emerson as expressed in this 
discourse, — what does it mean? We must tack 
together such sentences as we can find that will 
stand for an answer : — 

" I think all sound minds rest on a certain prelimi- 
nary conviction, namely, that if it be best that con- 
scious personal life shall continue, it will continue ; 
if not best, then it will not ; and we, if we saw the 
whole, should of course see that it was better so." 

This is laying the table for a Barmecide feast 
of nonentity, with the possibility of a real ban- 
quet to be provided for us. But he continues : — 

" Schiller said, l What is so universal as death 
must be benefit.' " 

He tells us what Michael Angelo said, how 



"IMMORTALITY." 291 

Plutarch felt, how Montesquieu thought about 
the question, and then glances off from it to the 
terror of the child at the thought of life without 
end, to the story of the two skeptical statesmen 
whose unsatisfied inquiry through a long course 
of years he holds to be a better affirmative evi- 
dence than their failure to find a confirmation 
was negative. He argues from our delight in 
permanence, from the delicate contrivances and 
adjustments of created things, that the contriver 
cannot be forever hidden, and says at last 
plainly : — 

" Everything is prospective, and man is to live 
hereafter. That the world is for his education is the 
only sane solution of the enigma." 

But turn over a few pages and we may 
read : — 

" I confess that everything connected with our 
personality fails. Nature never spares the individual ; 
we are always balked of a complete success ; no pros- 
perity is promised to our self-esteem. We have our 
indemnity only in the moral and intellectual reality 
to which we aspire. That is immortal, and we only 
through that. The soul stipulates for no private good. 
That which is private I see not to be good. ' If truth 
live, I live ; if justice live, I live,' said one of the old 
saints, k ' and these by any man's suffering are enlarged 
and enthroned.' " 

Once more we get a dissolving view of Emer- 



292 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

son's creed, if such a word applies to a state- 
ment like the following : — 

— "I mean that I am a better believer, and all 
serious souls are better believers in the immortality 
than we can give grounds for. The real evidence is 
too subtle, or is higher than we can write down in 
propositions, and therefore Wordsworth's ' Ode ' is the 
best modern essay on the subject." 

Wordsworth's " Ode " is a noble and beauti- 
ful dream ; is it anything more ? The reader 
who would finish this Essay, which I suspect to 
belong to an early period of Emerson's develop- 
ment, must be prepared to plunge into mysticism 
and lose himself at last in an Oriental apologue. 
The eschatology which rests upon an English 
poem and an Indian fable belongs to the realm 
of reverie and of imagination rather than the 
domain of reason. 

On the 19th of April, 1875, the hundredth 
anniversary of the " Fight at the Bridge," Em- 
erson delivered a short Address at the unveiling 
of the statue of " The Minute-Man, " erected at 
the place of the conflict, to commemorate the 
event. This is the last Address he ever wrote, 
though he delivered one or more after this date. 
From the manuscript which lies before me I 
extract a single passage : — 

" In the year 1775 we had many enemies and 



"poems." 293 

many friends in England, but our one benefactor was 
King George the Third. The time had arrived for 
the political severance of America, that it might play 
its part in the history of this globe, and the inscru- 
table divine Providence gave an insane king to Eng- 
land. In the resistance of the Colonies, he alone 
was immovable on the question of force. England 
was so dear to us that the Colonies could only be 
absolutely disunited by violence from England, and 
only one man could compel the resort to violence. 
Parliament wavered, Lord North wavered, all the 
ministers wavered, but the king had the insanity of 
one idea ; he was immovable, he insisted on the im- 
possible, so the army was sent, America was instantly 
united, and the Nation born." 

There is certainly no mark of mental failure 
in this paragraph, written at a period when he 
had long ceased almost entirely from his literary 
labors. 

Emerson's collected " Poems " constitute the 
ninth volume of the recent collected edition of 
his works. They will be considered in a fol- 
lowing chapter. 



CHAPTEK XIII. 

1878-1882. Mr. 75-79. 

Last Literary Labors. — Addresses and Essays. — " Lectures 
and Biographical Sketches." — " Miscellanies." 

The decline of Emerson's working faculties 
went on gently and gradually, but he was not 
condemned to entire inactivity. His faithful 
daughter, Ellen, followed him with assiduous, 
quiet, ever watchful care, aiding his failing mem- 
ory, bringing order into the chaos of his manu- 
script, an echo before the voice whose words it 
was to shape for him when his mind faltered 
and needed a momentary impulse. 

With her helpful presence and support he 
ventured from time to time to read a paper be- 
fore a select audience. Thus, March 30, 1878, 
he delivered a Lecture in the Old South Church, 
— " Fortune of the Kepublic." On the 5th of 
May, 1879, he read a Lecture in the Chapel of 
Divinity College, Harvard University, — " The 
Preacher." In 1881 he read a paper on Carlyle 
before the Massachusetts Historical Society. — 
He also published a paper in the "North Amer- 



LAST LITERARY LABORS. 295 

ican Review," in 1878, — " The Sovereignty of 
Ethics," and one on " Superlatives," in " The 
Century" for February, 1882. 

But in these years he was writing little or 
nothing. All these papers were taken from 
among his manuscripts of different dates. The 
same thing is true of the volumes published 
since his death ; they were only compilations 
from his stores of unpublished matter, and their 
arrangement was the work of Mr. Emerson's 
friend and literary executor, Mr. Cabot. These 
volumes cannot be considered as belonging to 
any single period of his literary life. 

Mr. Cabot prefixes to the tenth volume of 
Emerson's collected works, which bears the title, 
" Lectures and Biographical Sketches," the fol- 
lowing : — 

"NOTE. 

" Of the pieces included in this volume the fol- 
lowing, namely, those from ' The Dial,' ' Character/ 
' Plutarch,' and the biographical sketches of Dr. 
Bipley, of Mr. Hoar, and of Henry Thoreau, were 
printed by Mr. Emerson before I took any part in 
the arrangement of his papers. The rest, except the 
sketch of Miss Mary Emerson, I got ready for his 
use in readings to his friends, or to a limited public. 
He had given up the regular practice of lecturing, 
but would sometimes, upon special request, read a 
paper that had been prepared for him from his manu- 
scripts, in the manner described in the Preface to 



296 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

' Letters and Social Aims/ — some former lecture 
serving as a nucleus for the new. Some of these 
papers he afterwards allowed to be printed ; others, 
namely. ' Aristocracy,' l Education,' ' The Man of Let- 
ters,' 'The Scholar,' 'Historic Notes of Life and 
Letters in New England,' ' Mary Moody Emerson,' 
are now published for the first time." 

Some of these papers I have already had oc- 
casion to refer to. From several of the others 
I will make one or two extracts, — a difficult 
task, so closely are the thoughts packed together. 

From " Demonology " : — 

" I say to the table-rappers 

' I will believe 
Thou wilt not utter what thou dost not know/ 
And so far will I trust thee, gentle Kate ! " 

" Meantime far be from me the impatience which 
cannot brook the supernatural, the vast ; far be from 
me the lust of explaining away all which appeals to 
the imagination, and the great presentiments which 
haunt us. Willingly I too say Hail ! to the unknown, 
awful powers which transcend the ken of the under- 
standing." 

I will not quote anything from the Essay 
called " Aristocracy." But let him who wishes 
to know what the word means to an American 
whose life has come from New England soil, 
whose ancestors have breathed New England 



LAST LITERARY LABORS. 297 

air for many generations, read it, and he will 
find a new interpretation of a very old and often 
greatly wronged appellation. 

" Perpetual Forces " is one of those prose 
poems, — of his earlier epoch, I have no doubt, 
— in which he plays with the facts of science 
with singular grace and freedom. 

What man could speak more fitly, with more 
authority of " Character," than Emerson ? When 
he says, " If all things are taken away, I have 
still all things in my relation to the Eternal," 
we feel that such an utterance is as natural to 
his pure spirit as breathing to the frame in which 
it was imprisoned. 

We have had a glimpse of Emerson as a 
school-master, but behind and far above the 
teaching drill-master's desk is the chair from 
which he speaks to us of " Education." Com- 
pare the short and easy method of the wise man 
of old, — " He that spareth his rod hateth his 
son," with this other, "Be the companion of his 
thought, the friend of his friendship, the lover 
of his virtue, — but no kinsman of his sin." 

" The Superlative " will prove light and pleas- 
ant reading after these graver essays. Mtj&Iv 
ayay, — ne quid nimis, — nothing in excess, was 
his precept as to adjectives. 

Two sentences from " The Sovereignty of 
Ethics " will go far towards reconciling elderly 



298 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

readers who have not forgotten the Westmin- 
ster Assembly's Catechism with this sweet-soulecL 
dealer in spiritual dynamite : — 

" Luther would cut his hand off sooner than write 
theses against the pope if he suspected that he was 
bringing on with all his might the pale negations of 
Boston Unitarianism. — 

" If I miss the inspiration of the saints of Calvinism, 
or of Platonism, or of Buddhism, our times are not 
up to theirs, or, more truly, have not yet their own 
legitimate force." 

So, too, this from " The Preacher " : — 

" All civil mankind have agreed in leaving one day 
for contemplation against six for practice. I hope 
that day will keep its honor and its use. — The Sab- 
bath changes its forms from age to age, but the 
substantial benefit endures." 

The special interest of the Address called 
" The Man of Letters " is, that it was delivered 
during the war. He was no advocate for peace 
where great principles were at the bottom of the 
conflict : — 

" War, seeking for the roots of strength, comes 
upon the moral aspects at once. — War ennobles the 
age. — Battle, with the sword, has cut many a Gor- 
dian knot in twain which all the wit of East and 
West, of Northern and Border statesmen could not 
untie." 



ESSAYS. 299 

" The Scholar ,! was delivered before two 
Societies at the University of Virginia so late as 
the year 1876. If I must select any of its wise 
words, I will choose the questions which he has 
himself italicized to show his sense of their im- 
portance : — 

"For all men, all women, Time, your country, your 
condition, the invisible world are the interrogators : 
Who are you ? What do you ? Can you obtain 
what you wish ? Is there method in your conscious- 
ness ? Can you see tendency in your life ? Can 
you help any soul ? 

" Can he answer these questions ? Can he dispose 
of them ? Happy if you can answer them mutely in 
the order and disposition of your life ! Happy for 
more than yourself, a benefactor of men, if you can 
answer them in works of wisdom, art, or poetry ; 
bestowing on the general mind of men organic cre- 
ations, to be the guidance and delight of all who know 
them." 

The Essay on " Plutarch " has a peculiar value 
from the fact that Emerson owes more to him 
than to any other author except Plato, who is 
one of the only two writers quoted oftener than 
Plutarch. Mutato nomine, the portrait which 
Emerson draws of the Greek moralist might 
stand for his own : — 

" Whatever is eminent in fact or in fiction, in 
opinion, in character, in institutions, in science — 



300 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

natural, moral, or metaphysical, or in memorable 
sayings drew his attention and came to his pen with 
more or less fulness of record. 

" A poet in verse or prose must have a sensuous 
eye, but an intellectual co - perception. Plutarch's 
memory is full and his horizon wide. Nothing touches 
man but he feels to be his. 

" Plutarch had a religion which Montaigne wanted, 
and which defends him from wantonness ; and though 
Plutarch is as plain spoken, his moral sentiment is al- 
ways pure. — 

" I do not know where to find a book — to borrow 
a phrase of Ben Jonson's — ' so rammed with life,' 
and this in chapters chiefly ethical, which are so 
prone to be heavy and sentimental. — - His vivacity 
and abundance never leave him to loiter or pound on 
an incident. — 

"In his immense quotation and allusion we quickly 
cease to discriminate between what he quotes and what 
he invents. — 'T is all Plutarch, by right of eminent 
domain, and all property vests in this emperor. 

"It is in consequence of this poetic trait in his 
mind, that I confess that, in reading him, I embrace 
the particulars, and carry a faint memory of the argu- 
ment or general design of the chapter ; but he is not 
less welcome, and he leaves the reader with a relish 
and a necessity for completing his studies. 

" He is a pronounced idealist, who does not hesi- 
, tate to say, like another Berkeley,' ' Matter is itself 
privation.' — 

" Of philosophy he is more interested in the results 



ESSAYS. 301 

than in the method. He has a just instinct of the 
presence of a master, and prefers to sit as a scholar 
with Plato than as a disputant. 

" His natural history is that of a lover and poet, 
and not of a physicist. 

" But though curious in the questions of the schools 
on the nature and genesis of things, his extreme in- 
terest in every trait of character, and his broad hu- 
manity, lead him constantly to Morals, to the study 
of the Beautiful and Good. Hence his love of heroes, 
his rule of life, and his clear convictions of the high 
destiny of the soul. La Harpe said that ' Plutarch 
is the genius the most naturally moral that ever ex- 
isted.' 

" Plutarch thought ' truth to be the grep^test good 
that man can receive, and the goodliest blessing that 
God can give.' 

" All his judgments are noble. He thought with 
Epicurus that it is more delightful to do, than to re- 
ceive a kindness. 

" Plutarch was well-born, well-conditioned — emi- 
nently social, he was a king in his own house, sur- 
rounded himself with select friends, and knew the 
high value of good conversation. — 

" He had that universal sympathy with genius 
which makes all its victories his own ; though he never 
used verse, he had many qualities of the poet in the 
power of his imagination, the speed of his mental 
associations, and his sharp, objective eyes. But what 
specially marks him, he is a chief example of the 
illumination of the intellect hy the force of morals." 



302 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

How much, of all this would have been recog- 
nized as -just and true i£ it had been set down in 
an obituary notice of Emerson ! 

I have already made use of several of the other 
papers contained in this volume, and will merely 
enumerate all that follow the " Plutarch." Some 
of the titles will be sure to attract the reader. 
They are " Historic Notes of Life and Letters in 
New England ; " " The Chardon Street Conven- 
tion ; " " Ezra Eipley, D. D. ; " « Mary Moody 
Emerson ; " " Samuel Hoar ; " " Thoreau ; " 
" Carlyle." — 

Mr. Cabot prefaces the eleventh and last 
volume of Emerson's writings with' the follow- 
ing " Note " : — 

" The first five pieces in this volume, and the 
* Editorial Address ' from the ' Massachusetts Quar- 
terly Review,' were published by Mr. Emerson long; 
ago. The speeches at the John Brown, the Walter 
Scott, and the Free Religious Association meetings 
were published at the time, no doubt with his consent, 
but without any active co-operation on his part. The 
' Fortune of the Republic ' appeared separately in 
1879 ; the rest have never been published. In none 
was any change from the original form made by me, 
except in the ' Fortune of the Republic,' which was 
made up of several lectures for the occasion upon 
which it was read." 



"MISCELLANIES" 303 

The volume of " Miscellanies " contains no 
less than twenty -three pieces of very various 
lengths and relating to many different subjects. 
The five referred to as having been previously 
published are, " The Lord's Supper," the " His- 
torical Discourse in Concord," the " Address at 
the Dedication of the Soldiers' Monument in 
Concord," the "Address on Emancipation in the 
British West Indies," and the Lecture or Essay 
on " War," — all of which have been already 
spoken of. 

Next in order comes a Lecture on the " Fu- 
gitive Slave Law." Emerson says, " I do not 
often speak on public questions. — My own 
habitual view is to the well-being of scholars." 
But he leaves his studies to attack the institu- 
tion of slavery, from which he says he himself 
has never suffered any inconvenience, and the 
"Law," which the abolitionists would always 
call the " Fugitive Slave Bill." Emerson had 
a great admiration for Mr. Webster, but he did 
not spare him as he recalled his speech of the 
seventh of March, just four years before the 
delivery of this Lecture. He warns against 
false leadership : — 

" To make good the cause of Freedom, you must 
draw oif from all foolish trust in others. — He only 
who is able to stand alone is qualified for society. 
And that I understand to be the end for which a 



304 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

soul exists in this world, — to be himself the counter- 
balance of all falsehood and all wrong. — The Anglo- 
Saxon race is proud and strong and selfish. — Eng- 
land maintains trade, not liberty." 

Cowper had said long before this : — 

" doing good, 
Disinterested good, is not our trade." 

And America found that England had not 
learned that trade when, fifteen years after this 
discourse was delivered, the conflict between 
the free and slave states threatened the ruin of 
the great Republic, and England forgot her 
Anti-slavery in the prospect of the downfall of 
" a great empire which threatens to overshadow 
the whole earth." 

It must be remembered that Emerson had 
never been identified with the abolitionists. But 
an individual act of wrong sometimes gives a 
sharp point to a blunt dagger which has been 
kept in its sheath too long : — 

" The events of the last few years and months and 
days have taught us the lessons of centuries. I do 
not see how a barbarous community and a civilized 
community can constitute one State. I think we must 
get rid of slavery or we must get rid of freedom." 

These were his words on the 26th of May, 
1856, in his speech on " The Assault upon Mr. 
Sumner." 



"MISCELLANIES." 305 

A few months later, in his " Speech on the 
Affairs of Kansas," delivered almost five years 
before the first gun was fired at Fort Sumter, 
he spoke the following fatally prophetic and 
commanding words : — 

" The hour is coming when the strongest will 
not be strong enough. A harder task will the new 
revolution of the nineteenth century be than was the 
revolution of the eighteenth century. I think the 
American Revolution bought its glory cheap. If 
the problem was new, it was simple. If there were 
few people, they were united, and the enemy three 
thousand miles off. But now, vast property, gigantic 
interests, family connections, webs of party, cover the 
land with a net-work that immensely multiplies the 
dangers of war. 

" Fellow-citizens, in these tunes full of the fate of 
the Republic, I think the towns should hold town 
meetings, and resolve themselves into Committees of 
Safety, go into permanent sessions, adjourning from 
week to week, from month to month. I wish we 
could send the sergeant-at-arms to stop every Ameri- 
can who is about to leave the country. Send home 
every one who is abroad, lest they should find no 
country to return to. Come home and stay at home 
while there is a country to save. When it is lost it 
will be time enough then for any who are luckless 
enough to remain alive to gather up their clothes and 
depart to some land where freedom exists." 

Two short speeches follow, one delivered at a 

20 



806 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

meeting for the relief of the family of John 
Brown, on the 18th of November, 1859, the 
other after his execution : — 

" Our blind statesmen," he says, " go up and down, 
with committees of vigilance and safety, hunting for 
the origin of this new heresy. They will need a 
very vigilant committee indeed to find its birthplace, 
and a very strong force to root it out. For the arch- 
Abolitionist, older than Brown, and older than the 
Shenandoah Mountains, is Love, whose other name 
is Justice, which was before Alfred, before Lycurgus, 
before Slavery, and will be after it." 

From his " Discourse on Theodore Parker " I 
take the following vigorous sentence : — 

"His commanding merit as a reformer is this, 
that he insisted beyond all men in pulpits, — I cannot 
think of one rival, — that the essence of Christianity 
is its practical morals ; it is there for use, or it is 
nothing ; and if you combine it with sharp trading, 
or with ordinary city ambitions to gloze over munic- 
ipal corruptions, or private intemperance, or success- 
ful fraud, or immoral politics, or unjust wars, or the 
cheating of Indians, or the robbery of frontier nations, 
or leaving your principles at home to follow on the 
high seas or in Europe a supple complaisance to ty- 
rants, — it is hypocrisy, and the truth is not in you ; 
and no love of religious music, or of dreams of 
Swedenborg, or praise of John Wesley, or of Jeremy 
Taylor, can save you from the Satan which you 
are." * 



"MISCELLANIES." 307 

The Lecture on " American Civilization," 
made up from two Addresses, one of which was 
delivered at Washington on the 31st of January,^ 
1862, is, as might be expected, full of anti- 
slavery. That on the " Emancipation Proclama- 
tion," delivered in Boston in September, 1862, is 
as full of " silent joy " at the advent of " a day 
which most of us dared not hope to see, — an 
event worth the dreadful war, worth its costs 
and uncertainties." 

From the " Remarks " at the funeral services 
for Abraham Lincoln, held in Concord on the 
19th of April, 1865, I extract this admirably 
drawn character of the man : — 

" He is the true history of the American people in 
his time. Step by step he walked before them ; slow 
with their slowness, quickening his march by theirs, 
the true representative of this continent ; an entirely 
public man ; father of his country, the pulse of twenty 
millions throbbing in his heart, the thought of their 
minds articulated by his tongue." 

The following are the titles of the remaining 
contents of this volume : " Harvard Commemo- 
ration Speech ; " " Editor's Address : Massa- 
chusetts Quarterly Review ; " " Woman ; " " Ad- 
dress to Kossuth ; " " Robert Burns ; " " Walter 
Scott ; " " Remarks at the Organization of the 
Free Religious Association ; " " Speech at the 
Annual Meeting of the Free Religious Associa- 
tion ; " " The Fortune of the Republic." 



808 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

In treating of the " Woman Question," Emer- 
son speaks temperately, delicately, with perfect 
fairness, but leaves it in the hands of the women 
themselves to determine whether they shall have 
an equal part in public affairs. " The new 
movement," he says, " is only a tide shared by 
the spirits of man and woman ; and you may 
proceed in the faith that whatever the woman's 
heart is prompted to desire, the man's mind is 
simultaneously prompted to accomplish." 

It is hard to turn a leaf in anv book of Emer- 
son's writing without finding some pithy remark 
or some striking image or witty comment which 
illuminates the page where we find it and tempts 
us to seize upon it for an extract. But I must 
content myself with these few sentences from 
"The Fortune of the Republic," the last ad- 
dress he ever delivered, in which his belief in 
America and her institutions, and his trust in 
the Providence which overrules all nations and 
all worlds, have found fitting utterance : — 

" Let the passion for America cast out the passion 
~ for Europe. Here let there be what the earth waits 
for, — exalted manhood. What this country longs for 
is personalities, grand persons, to counteract its mate- 
rialities. For it is the rule of the universe that corn 
shall serve man, and not man corn. 

" They who find America insipid, — they for whom 
London and Paris have spoiled their own homes, can 



"MISCELLANIES." 309 

be spared to return to those cities. I not only see a 
career at home for more genius than we have, but for 
more than there is in the world. 

" Our helm is given up to a better guidance than 
our own ; the course of events is quite too strong for 
any helmsman, and our little wherry is taken in tow 
by the ship of the great Admiral which knows the 
way, and has the force to draw men and states and 
planets to their good." 

With this expression of love and respect for 
his country and trust in his country's God, we 
may take leave of Emerson's prose writings. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

-emerson's poems. 

The following " Prefatory Note " by Mr. 
Cabot introduces the ninth volume of the series 
of Emerson's collected works : — 

" This volume contains nearly all the pieces in- 
cluded in the Poems and May-Day of former edi- 
tions. In 1876 Mr. Emerson published a selection 
from his poems, adding six new ones, and omitting 
many. Of those omitted, several are now restored, 
in accordance with the expressed wishes of many 
readers and lovers of them. Also some pieces never 
before published are here given in an Appendix, on 
various grounds. Some of them appear to have had 
Emerson's approval, but to have been withheld be- 
cause they were unfinished. These it seemed best 
not to suppress, now that they can never receive their 
completion. Others, mostly of an early date, remained 
unpublished doubtless because of their personal and 
private nature. Some of these seem to have an auto- 
biographic interest sufficient to justify their publica- 
tion. Others again, often mere fragments, have been 
admitted as characteristic, or as expressing in poetic 
form thoughts found in the Essays. 



EMERSON'S POEMS. 311 

" In coming to a decision in these cases, it seemed 
on the whole preferable to take the risk of including 
too much rather than the opposite, and to leave the 
task of further winnowing to the hands of time. 

" As was stated in the Preface to the first volume 
of this edition of Mr. Emerson's writings, the readings 
adopted by him in the " Selected Poems " have not 
always been followed here, but in some cases prefer- 
ence has been given to corrections made by him when 
he was in fuller strength than at the time of the last 
revision. 

" A change in the arrangement of the stanzas of 
" May-Day," in the part representative of the march 
of Spring, received his sanction as bringing them more 
nearly in accordance with the events in Nature." 

Emerson's verse has been a fertile source of 
discussion. Some have called him a poet and 
nothing but a poet, and some have made so 
much of the palpable defects of his verse that 
they have forgotten to recognize its true claims. 
His prose is often highly poetical, but his verse 
is something more than the most imaginative 
and rhetorical passages of his prose. An illus- 
tration presently to be given will make this point 
clear. 

Poetry is to prose what the so-called full dress 
of the ball-room is to the plainer garments of 
the household and the street. Full dress, as we 
call it, is so full of beauty that it cannot hold it 



312 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

all, and the redundancy of nature overflows the 
narrowed margin of satin or velvet. 

It reconciles us to its approach to nudity by 
the richness of its drapery and ornaments. A 
pearl or diamond necklace or a blushing bouquet 
excuses the liberal allowance of undisguised na- 
ture. We expect from the fine lady in her 
brocades and laces a generosity of display which 
we should reprimand with the virtuous severity 
of Tartuffe if ventured upon by the waiting- 
maid in her calicoes. So the poet reveals him- 
self under the protection of his imaginative and 
melodious phrases, — the flowers and jewels of 
his vocabulary. 

Here is a prose sentence from Emerson's 
" Works and Days : " — 

" The days are ever divine as to the first Aryans. 
They come and go like muffled and veiled figures, 
sent from a distant friendly party ; but they say 
nothing, and if we do not use the gifts they bring, 
they carry them as silently away." 

Now see this thought in full dress, and then 

ask what is the difference between prose and 

poetry : — 

"DAYS. 

" Daughters of Time, the hypocritic Days, 
Muffled and dumb like barefoot dervishes, 
And marching single in an endless file, 
Bring diadems and fagots in their hands. 
To each they offer gifts after his will, 



EMERSON'S POEMS. 313 

Bread, kingdom, stars, and sky that holds them all. 

I, in my pleached garden watched the pomp, 

Forgot my morning wishes, hastily 

Took a few herbs and apples, and the Day 

Turned and departed silent. I too late 

Under her solemn fillet saw the scorn." 

— Cinderella at the fireside, and Cinderella 
at the prince's ball ! The full dress version of 
the thought is glittering with new images like 
bracelets and brooches and ear-rings, and fringed 
with fresh adjectives like edges of embroidery. 
That one word pleached, an heir-loom from 
Queen Elizabeth's day, gives to the noble sonnet 
an antique dignity and charm like the effect of 
an ancestral jewel. But mark that now the poet 
reveals himself as he could not in the prosaic 
form of the first extract. It is his own neglect 
of his great opportunity of which he now speaks, 
and not merely the indolent indifference of 
others. It is himself who is the object of scorn. 
Self-revelation of beauty embellished by orna- 
ments is the privilege of full dress ; self -reve- 
lation in the florid costume of verse is the divine 
right of the poet. Passion that must express 
itself longs always for the freedom of rhythmic 
utterance. And in spite of the exaggeration and 
extravagance which shield themselves under the 
claim of poetic license, I venture to affirm that 
" In vino Veritas " is not truer than In carmine 
Veritas, 



314 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

As a further illustration of what has just 
been said of the self-revelations to be looked for 
in verse, and in Emerson's verse more especially, 
let the reader observe how freely he talks about 
his bodily presence and infirmities in his poetry, 
— subjects he never referred to in prose, except 
incidentally, in private letters. 

Emerson is so essentially a poet that whole 
pages of his are like so many litanies of alter- 
nating chants and recitations. His thoughts slip 
on and off their light rhythmic robes just as the 
mood takes him, as was shown in the passage I 
have quoted in prose and in verse. Many of 
the metrical preludes to his lectures are a versi- 
fied and condensed abstract of the leading doc- 
trine of the discourse. They are a curious in- 
stance of survival ; the lecturer, once a preach- 
er, still wants his text ; and finds his scriptural 
motto in his own rhythmic inspiration. 

Shall we rank Emerson among the great poets 
or not ? 

" The great poets are judged by the frame of mind 
they induce ; and to them, of all men, the severest 
criticism is due." 

These are Emerson's words in the Preface to 
" Parnassus." 

His own poems will stand this test as well as 



EMERSON'S POEMS. 315 

any in the language. They lift the reader into 
a higher region of thought and feeling. This 
seems to me a better test to apply to them 
than the one which Mr. Arnold cited from 
Milton. The passage containing this must be 
taken, not alone, but with the context. Milton 
had been speaking of " Logic " and of " Rheto- 
ric," and spoke of poetry " as being less subtile 
and fine, but more simple, sensuous, and passion- 
ate." This relative statement, it must not be 
forgotten, is conditioned by what went before. 
If the terms are used absolutely, and not com- 
paratively, as Milton used them, they must be 
very elastic if they would stretch widely enough 
to include all the poems which the world recog- 
nizes as masterpieces, nay, to include some of 
the best of Milton's own. 

In spite of what he said about himself in his 
letter to Carlyle, Emerson was not only a poet, 
but a very remarkable one. Whether a great 
J)oet or not will depend on the scale we use and 
the meaning we affix to the term. The heat at 
eighty degrees of Fahrenheit is one thing and the 
heat at eighty degrees of Re'aumur is a very 
different matter. The rank of poets is a point 
of very unstable equilibrium. From the days 
of Homer to our own, critics have been dis- 
puting about the place to be assigned to this or 
that member of the poetic hierarchy. It is not 



316 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

the most popular poet who is necessarily the 
greatest ; Wordsworth never had half the pop- 
ularity of Scott or Moore. It is not the mul- 
titude of remembered passages which settles 
the rank of a metrical composition as poetry. 
Gray's " Elegy," it is true, is full of lines we all 
remember, and is a great poem, if that term can 
be applied to any piece of verse of that length. 
But what shall we say to the " Ars Poetica " 
of Horace? It is crowded with lines worn 
smooth as old sesterces by constant quotation. 
And yet we should rather call it a versified criti- 
cism than a poem in the full sense of that word. 
And what shall we do with Pope's "Essay 
on Man," which has furnished more familiar 
lines than " Paradise Lost " and " Paradise Re- 
gained " both together ? For all that, we know 
that there is a school of writers who will not 
allow that Pope deserves the name of poet. 

It takes a generation or two to find out what 
are the passages in a great writer which are to 
become commonplaces in literature and conver- 
sation. It is to be remembered that Emer- 
son is one of those authors whose popularity 
must diffuse itself from above downwards. And 
after all, few will dare assert that "The Van- 
ity of Human Wishes " is greater as a poem 
than Shelley's " Ode to the West Wind," or 
Keats's "Ode to a Nightingale," because no 



EMERSON'S POEMS. 317 

line in either of these poems is half so often 
quoted as 

" To point a moral or adorn a tale." 

We cannot do better than begin our consid- 
eration of Emerson's poetry with Emerson's 
own self-estimate. He says in a fit of humility, 
writing to Carlyle : — 

" I do not belong to the poets, but only to a low 
department of literature, the reporters, suburban 
men." 

But Miss Peabody writes to Mr. Ireland : — 

" He once said to me, 1 1 am not a great poet — 
but whatever is of me is a ^>oet.' > " 

These opposite feelings were the offspring of 
different moods and different periods. 

Here is a fragment, written at the age of 
twenty-eight, in which his self-distrust and his 
consciousness of the " vision," if not " the faculty, 
divine," are revealed with the brave nudity of 
the rhythmic confessional : — 

" A dull uncertain brain, A 

But gifted yet to know 
That God has cherubim who go 
Singing an immortal strain, 
Immortal here below. 
I know the mighty bards, 
I listen while they sing, 
And now I know 
The secret store 



318 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

Which these explore 

When they with torch of genius pierce 

The tenfold clouds that cover 

The riches of the universe 

From God's adoring lover. 

And if to me it is not given 

To fetch one ingot thence 

Of that unfading gold of Heaven 

His merchants may dispense, 

Yet well I know the royal mine 

And know the sparkle of its ore, 
Know Heaven's truth from lies that shine, — 

Explored, they teach us to explore." 

These lines are from " The Poet," a series 
of fragments given in the " Appendix," which, 
with his first volume, " Poems," his second, 
" May-Day, and other Pieces," form the complete 
ninth volume of the new series. These frag- 
ments contain some of the loftiest and noblest 
passages to be found in his poetical works, and 
if the reader should doubt which of Emerson's 
self-estimates in his two different moods spoken 
of above had most truth in it, he could question 
no longer after reading " The Poet." 

Emerson has the most exalted ideas of the 
true poetic function, as this passage from " Mer- 
lin " sufficiently shows : — 

" Thy trivial harp will never please 
Or fill my craving ear ; 
Its chords should ring as blows the breeze, 
Free, peremptory, clear. 



EMERSON'S POEMS. 319 

No jingling serenader's art 

Nor tinkling of piano-strings 

Can make the wild blood start 

In its mystic springs ; 

The kingly bard 

Must smite the chords rudely and hard, 

As with hammer or with mace ; 

That they may render back 

Artful thunder, which conveys 

Secrets of the solar track, 

Sparks of the supersolar blaze. 

Great is the art, 

Great be the manners of the bard. 

He shall not his brain encumber 

With the coil of rhythm and number ; 

But leaving rule and pale forethought 

He shall aye climb 

For his rhyme. 

' Pass in, pass in, ' the angels say, 
' In to the upper doors, 

Nor count compartments of the floors, 

But mount to paradise 

By the stairway of surprise.' " 

And here is another passage from " The Poet," 

mentioned in the quotation before the last, in 

which the bard is spoken of as performing greater 

miracles than those ascribed to Orpheus : — 

" A Brother of the world, his song 
Sounded like a tempest strong 
Which tore from oaks their branches broad, 
And stars from the ecliptic road. 
Time wore he as his clothing-weeds, 



320 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

He sowed the sun and moon for seeds. 

As melts the iceberg in the seas, 

As clouds give rain to the eastern breeze, 

As snow-banks thaw in April's beam, 

The solid kingdoms like a dream 

Resist in vain his motive strain, 

They totter now and float amain. 

For the Muse gave special charge 

His learning should be deep and large, 

And his training should not scant 

The deepest lore of wealth or want : 

His flesh should feel, his eyes should read 

Every maxim of dreadful Need ; 

In its fulness he should taste 

Life's honeycomb, but not too fast ; 

Full fed, but not intoxicated ; 

He should be loved ; he should be hated ; 

A blooming child to children dear, 

His heart should palpitate with fear." 

We look naturally to see what poets were 
Emerson's chief favorites. In his poems " The 
Test " and " The, Solution," we find that the 
five whom he recognizes as defying the powers 
of destruction are Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, 
Swedenborg, Goethe. 

Here are a few of his poetical characterizations 
from " The Harp : "— 

" And this at least I dare affirm, 
Since genius too has bound and term, 
There is no bard in all the choir, 
Not Homer's self, the poet-sire, 
Wise Milton's odes of pensive pleasure, 



EMERSON'S POEMS. 321 

Or Shakespeare wkorii no mind can measure, 

Nor Collins' verse of tender pain, 

Nor Byron's clarion of disdain, 

Scott, the delight of generous boys, 

Or Wordsworth, Pan's recording voice, — 

Not one of all can put in verse, 

Or to this presence could rehearse 

The sights and voices ravishing 

The boy knew on the hills in spring." — 

In the notice of " Parnassus " some of his 
preferences have been already mentioned. 

Comparisons between men of genius for the 
sake of aggrandizing the one at the expense of 
the other are the staple of the meaner kinds of 
criticism. No lover of art will clash a Venetian 
goblet against a Roman amphora to see which 
is strongest; no lover of nature undervalues a 
violet because it is not a rose. But comparisons 
used in the way of description are not odious. 

The difference between Emerson's poetry and 
that of the contemporaries with whom he would 
naturally be compared is that of algebra and 
arithmetic. He deals largely in general sym- 
bols, abstractions^ and infinite series. He is al- 
ways seeing the universal in the particular. The 
great multitude of mankind care more for two 
and two, something definite, a fixed quantity, 
than for a -f- b' s and cc 2s , — symbols used for 

undetermined amounts and indefinite possibili- 
21 



322 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

ties. Emerson is a citizen of the universe who 
has taken up his residence for a few days and 
nights in this travelling caravansary between 
the two inns that hang out the signs of Venus 
and Mars. This little planet could not provin- 
cialize such a man. The multiplication-table is 
for the every day use of every day earth-people, 
but the symbols he deals with are too vast, some- 
times, we must own, too vague, for the unillumi- 
nated terrestrial and arithmetical intelligence. 
One cannot help feeling that he might have 
dropped in upon us from some remote centre of 
spiritual life, where, instead of addition and sub- 
traction, children were taught quaternions, and 
where the fourth dimension of space was as famil- 
iarly known to everybody as a foot-measure or a 
yard-stick is to us. Not that he himself dealt 
in the higher or the lower mathematics, but he 
saw the hidden spiritual meaning of things as 
Professor Cayley or Professor Sylvester see the 
meaning of their mysterious formulae. Without 
using the Rosetta- stone of Swedenborg, Emer- 
son finds in every phenomenon of nature a hiero- 
glyphic. Others measure and describe the monu- 
ments, — he reads the sacred inscriptions. How 
alive he makes Monadnoc ! Dinocrates under- 
took to "hew Mount Athos to the shape of 
man" in the likeness of Alexander the Great. 
Without the help of tools or workmen, Emerson 



EMERSON'S POEMS. 323 

makes " Cliesliire's haughty hill " stand before 
us an impersonation of kingly humanity, and 
talk with us as a god from Olympus might have 
talked. 

-r This is the fascination of Emerson's poetry ; 
it moves in a world of universal symbolism. The 
sense of the infinite fills it with its majestic 
presence. It shows, also, that he has a keen 
delight in the every-day aspects of nature. But 
he looks always with the eye of a poet, never 
with that of the man of science. The law of 
association of ideas is wholly different in the two. 
The scientific man connects objects in sequences 
and series, and in so doing is guided by their 
collective resemblances. His aim is to classify 
and index all that he sees and contemplates so 
as to show the relations which unite, and learn 
the laws that govern, the subjects of his study. 
The poet links the most remote objects together 
by the slender filament of wit, the flowery chain 
of fancy, or the living, pulsating cord of imagina- 
tion, always guided by his instinct for the beauti- 
ful. The man of science clings to his object, as 
the marsupial embryo to its teat, until he has 
filled himself as full as he can hold ; the poet 
takes a sip of his dew-drop, throws his head up 
like a chick, rolls his eyes around in contempla- 
tion of the heavens above him and the universe in 
general, and never thinks of asking a Linnssan 



824 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

question as to the flower that furnished him 
his dew-drop. The poetical and scientific natures 
rarely coexist; Haller and Goethe are examples 
which show that such a union may occur, but as 
a rule the poet is contented with the colors of 
the rainbow and leaves the study of Fraunhof er's 
lines to the man of science. 

Though far from being a man of science, 
Emerson was a realist in the best sense of that 
word. But his realities reached to the highest 
heavens : like Milton, — 

" He passed the flaming bounds of place and time ; 
The living throne, the sapphire blaze 
Where angels tremble while they gaze, 
He saw " — 

Everywhere his poetry abounds in celestial im- 
agery. If Galileo had been a poet as well as an 
astronomer, he would hardly have sowed his 
verse thicker with stars than we find them in the 
poems of Emerson. 

Not less did Emerson clothe the common as- 
pects of life with the colors of his imagination. 
He was ready to see beauty everywhere : — 

" Thou can'st not wave thy staff in air, 
Or dip thy paddle in the lake, 
But it carves the bow of beauty there, 
And the ripples in rhyme the oar forsake." 

He called upon the poet to 

" Tell men what they knew before ; 
Paint the prospect from their door." 



EMERSON'S POEMS. 325 

And his practice was like his counsel. He saw 
our plain New England life with as honest New 
England eyes as ever looked at a huckleberry- 
bush or into a milking-pail.. 

This noble quality of his had its dangerous 
side. In one of his exalted moods he would 
have us 

"Give to barrows, trays and pans 
Grace and glimmer of romance." 

But in his Lecture on " Poetry and Imagina- 
tion," he says : — 

" What we once admired as poetry has long since 
come to be a sound of tin pans ; and many of our 
later books we have outgrown. Perhaps Homer and 
Milton will be tin pans yet." 

The " grace and glimmer of romance " which 
was to invest the tin pan are forgotten, and he 
uses it as a belittling object for comparison. 
He himself was not often betrayed into the mis- 
take of confounding the prosaic with the poetical, 
but his followers, so far as the "realists" have 
taken their hint from him, have done it most 
thoroughly. Mr. Whitman enumerates all the 
objects he happens to be looking at as if they 
were equally suggestive to the poetical mind, fur- 
nishing his reader a large assortment on which 
he may exercise the fullest freedom of selec- 
tion. It is only giving him the same liberty 
that Lord Timothy Dexter allowed his readers 



326 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

in the matter of punctuation, by leaving all 
stops out of his sentences, and printing at the 
end of his book a page of commas, semicolons, 
colons, periods, notes of interrogation and ex- 
clamation, with which the reader was expected 
to "pepper" the pages as he might see fit. 

French realism does not stop at the tin pan, 
but must deal with the slop-pail and the wash- 
tub as if it were literally true that 

" In the mud and scum of things 
There alway, alway something sings." 

Happy were it for the world if M. Zola and his 
tribe would stop even there ; but when they cross 
the borders of science into its infected districts, 
leaving behind them the reserve and delicacy 
which the genuine scientific observer never for- 
gets to carry with him, they disgust even those 
to whom the worst scenes they describe are too 
wretchedly familiar. The true realist is such a 
man as Parent du Chatelet ; exploring all that 
most tries the senses and the sentiments, and 
reporting all truthfully, but soberly, chastely, 
without needless circumstance, or picturesque 
embellishment, for a useful end, and not for a 
mere sensational effect. 

What a range of subjects from " The Prob- 
lem " and " Uriel " and "Forerunners " to " The 
Humble-Bee" and "The Titmouse!" Nor let 
the reader who thinks the poet must go far to 



EMERSON'S POEMS. 327 

find a fitting theme fail to read the singularly- 
impressive home-poem, " Hamatreya," beginning 
with the names of the successive owners of a 
piece of land in Concord, — probably the same 
he owned after the last of them : — 

"Bulkeley, Hunt, Willard, Hosmer, Meriam, Flint," 

and ending with the austere and solemn " Earth- 
Song." 

Full of poetical feeling, and with a strong 
desire for poetical expression, Emerson experi- 
enced a difficulty in the mechanical part of met- 
rical composition. His muse picked her way as 
his speech did in conversation and in lecturing. 
He made desperate work now and then with 
rhyme and rhythm, showing that though a born 
poet he was not a born singer. Think of mak- 
ing " feeble " rhyme with " people," " abroad " 
with " Lord," and contemplate the following 
couplet which one cannot make rhyme without 
actual verbicide : — 

" Where feeds the moose, and walks the surly bear, 
And up the tall mast runs the woodpeck "- are ! 

And how could prose go on all-fours more un- 
metrically than this ? 

" In Adirondac lakes 
At morn or noon the guide rows bare-headed." 

It was surely not difficult to say — 

" At morn or noon bare-headed rows the o-uide." 



328 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

And yet while we note these blemishes, many of 
us will confess that we like his uncombed verse 
better, oftentimes, than if it were trimmed more 
neatly and disposed more nicely. When he is 
at his best, his lines flow with careless ease, as a 
mountain stream tumbles, sometimes rough and 
sometimes smooth, but all the more interesting 
for the rocks it runs against and the grating of 
the pebbles it rolls over. 

There is one trick of verse which Emerson 
occasionally, not very often, indulges in. This 
is the crowding of a redundant syllable into a 
line. It is a liberty which is not to be abused by 
the poet. Shakespeare, the supreme artist, and 
Milton, the " mighty-mouth'd inventor of harmo- 
nies," knew how to use it effectively. Shelley 
employed it freely. Bryant indulged in it oc- 
casionally, and wrote an article in an early num- 
ber of the "North American Review " in defence 
of its use. Willis was fond of it. As a relief 
to monotony it may be now and then allowed, 
— may even have an agreeable effect in breaking 
the monotony of too formal verse. But it may 
easily become a deformity and a cause of aver- 
sion. A humpback may add picturesqueness to 
a procession, but if there are too many hump- 
backs in line we turn away from the sight of 
them. Can any ear reconcile itself to the last 
of these three lines of Emerson's ? 



EMERSON'S POEMS. 329 

" Oh, what is Heaven but the fellowship 
Of minds that each can stand against the world 
By its own meek and incorruptible will ? " 

These lines that lift their backs up in the mid- 
dle — span-worm lines, we may call them — are 
not to be commended for common use because 
some great poets have now and then admitted 
them. They have invaded some of our recent 
poetry as the canker-worms gather on our elms 
in June. Emerson has one or two of them here 
and there, but they never swarm on his leaves 
so as to frighten us away from their neighbor- 
hood. 

As for the violently artificial rhythms and 
rhymes which have reappeared of late in English 
and American literature, Emerson would as soon 
have tried to ride three horses at once in a cir- 
cus as to shut himself up in triolets, or attempt 
any cat's -cradle tricks of rhyming sleight of 
hand. 

If we allow that Emerson is not a born singer, 
that he is a careless versifier and rhymer, we 
must still recognize that there is something in 
his verse which belongs, indissolubly, sacredly, 
to his thought. Who would decant the wine 
of his poetry from its quaint and antique-look- 
ing lagena f — Read his poem to the iEolian 
harp (" The Harp ") and his model betrays it- 
self : — 



330 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

" These syllables that Nature spoke, 
And the thoughts that in him woke 
Can adequately utter none 
Save to his ear the wind-harp lone. 
Therein I hear the Parese reel 
The threads of man at their humming wheel, 
The threads of life and power and pain, 
So sweet and mournful falls the strain. 
And best can teach its Delphian chord 
How Nature to the soul is moored, 
If once again that silent string, 
As erst it wont, would thrill and ring." 

There is no need of quoting any of the poems 
which have become familiar to most true lov- 
ers of poetry. Emerson saw fit to imitate the 
Egyptians by placing " The Sphinx " at the 
entrance of his temple of song. This poem was 
not fitted to attract worshippers. It is not easy 
of comprehension, not pleasing in movement. 
As at first written it had one verse in it which 
sounded so much like a nursery rhyme that 
Emerson was prevailed upon to omit it in the 
later versions. There are noble passages in it, 
but they are for the adept and not for the begin- 
ner. A commonplace young person taking up 
the volume and puzzling his or her way along 
will come by and by to the verse : — 

" Have I a lover 

Who is noble and free ? — 
I would he were nobler 
Than to love me." 



EMERSON'S POEMS. 331 

The commonplace young person will be apt to 
say or think g'est magnifiqite, mais ge r£ est pas 
— V amour. 

The third poem in the volume, " The Prob- 
lem," should have stood first in order. This 
ranks among the finest of Emerson's poems. 
All his earlier verse has a certain freshness 
which belongs to the first outburst of song in a 
poetic nature. " Each and All," " The Humble- 
Bee," " The Snow-Storm," should be read before 
" Uriel," " The World-Soul," or " Mithridates." 
" Monadnoc " will be a good test of the read- 
er's taste for Emerson's poetry, and after this 
" Woodnotes." 

In studying his poems we must not overlook 
the delicacy of many of their descriptive por- 
tions. If in the flights of his imagination he 
is like the strong-winged bird of passage, in his 
exquisite choice of descriptive epithets he re- 
minds me of the tenui-rostrals. His subtle selec- 
tive instinct penetrates the vocabulary for the 
one word he wants, as the long, slender bill of 
those birds dives deep into the flower for its 
drop of honey. Here is a passage showing admi- 
rably the two different conditions : wings closed 
and the selective instinct picking out its de- 
scriptive expressions ; then suddenly wings flash- 
ing open and the imagination in the firmament, 
where it is always at home. Follow the pitiful 



332 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

inventory of insignificances of the forlorn being 
lie describes with a pathetic humor more likely 
to bring a sigh than a smile, and then mark the 
grand hyperbole of the last two lines. The pas- 
sage is from the poem called " Destiny " : — 

" Alas ! that one is born in blight, 
Victim of perpetual slight : 
When thou lookest on his face, 
Thy heart saith ' Brother, go thy ways ! 
None shall ask thee what thou doest, 
Or care a rush for what thou knowest, 
Or listen when thou repliest, 
Or remember where thou liest, 
Or how thy supper is sodden ; ' 
And another is born 
To make the sun forgotten." 

Of all Emerson's poems the " Concord Hymn " 

is the most nearly complete and faultless, — but 

it is not distinctively Emersonian. It is such 

a poem as Collins might have written, — it has 

the very movement and melody of the " Ode 

on the Death of Mr. Thomson," and of the 

" Dirge in Cymbeline," with the same sweetness 

and tenderness of feeling. Its one conspicuous 

line, 

" And fired the shot heard round the world," 

must not take to itself all the praise deserved 
by this perfect little poem, a model for all of 
its kind. Compact, expressive, serene, solemn, 
musical, in four brief verses it tells the story of 



EMERSON'S POEMS. 333 

the past, records the commemorative act of the 
passing day, and invokes the higher Power that 
governs the future to protect the Memorial-stone 
sacred to Freedom and her martyrs. 

These poems of Emerson's find the readers 
that must listen to them and delight in them, as 
the " Ancient Mariner " fastened upon the man 
who must hear him. If any doubter wishes to 
test his fitness for reading them, and if the 
poems already mentioned are not enough to 
settle the question, let him read the paragraph 
of " May-Day," beginning, — 

" I saw the bud-crowned Spring go forth," 

" Sea-shore," the fine fragments in the " Ap- 
pendix" to his published works, called, collec- 
tively, " The Poet," blocks bearing the mark 
of poetic genius, but left lying round for want 
of the structural instinct, and last of all, that 
which is, in many respects, first of all, the 
" Threnody," a lament over the death of his 
first-born son. This poem has the dignity of 
" Lycidas " without its refrigerating classicism, 
and with all the tenderness of Cowper's lines 
on the receipt of his mother's picture. It may 
well compare with others of the finest memorial 
poems in the language, — with Shelley's " Ado- 
nais," and Matthew Arnold's " Thyrsis," leaving 
out of view Tennyson's " In Memoriam "as of 
wider scope and larger pattern. 



334 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

Many critics will concede that there is much 
truth in Mr. Arnold's remark on the want of 
" evolution " in Emerson's poems. One is struck 
with the fact that a great number of fragments 
lie about his poetical workshop : poems begun 
and never finished ; scraps of poems, chips of 
poems, paving the floor with intentions never 
carried out. One cannot help remembering Cole- 
ridge with his incomplete " Christabel," and his 
" Abyssinian Maid," and her dulcimer which 
she never got a tune out of. We all know that 
there was good reason why Coleridge should have 
been infirm of purpose. But when we look at 
that great unfinished picture over which Allston 
labored with the hopeless ineffectiveness of Sisy- 
phus ; when we go through a whole gallery of 
pictures by an American artist in which the 
backgrounds are slighted as if our midsummer 
heats had taken away half the artist's life and 
vigor ; when we walk round whole rooms full of 
sketches, impressions, effects, symphonies, invisi- 
bilities, and other apologies for honest work, it 
would not be strange if it should suggest a pain- 
ful course of reflections as to the. possibility that 
there may be something in our climatic or 
other conditions which tends to scholastic and 
artistic anaemia and insufficiency, — the opposite 
of what we find showing itself in the full-blooded 
verse of poets like Browning and on the flaming 



EMERSON'S POEMS. 335 

canvas of painters like Henri Regnault. Life 
seemed lustier in Old England than in New 
England to Emerson, to Hawthorne, and to that 
admirable observer, Mr. John Burroughs. Per- 
haps we require another century or two of accli- 
mation. 

Emerson never grappled with any considerable 
metrical difficulties. He wrote by preference in 
what I have ventured to call the normal respir- 
atory measure, — octosyllabic verse, in which 
one common expiration is enough and not too 
much for the articulation of each line. The 
" fatal facility " for which this verse is noted 
belongs to it as recited and also as written, and 
it implies the need of only a minimum of skill 
and labor. I doubt if Emerson would have writ- 
ten a verse of poetry if he had been obliged to 
use the Spenserian stanza. In the simple meas- 
ures he habitually employed he found least 
hindrance to his thought. 

Every true poet has an atmosphere as much 
as every great painter. The golden sunshine of 
Claude and the pearly mist of Corot belonged 
to their way of looking at nature as much as the 
color of their eyes and hair belonged to their 
personalities. So with the poets ; for Words- 
worth the air is always serene and clear, for 
Byron the sky is uncertain between storm and 
sunshine. Emerson sees all nature in the same 



336 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

pearly mist that wraps tlie willows and the 
streams of Corot. Without its own character- 
istic atmosphere, illuminated by 

" The light that never was on sea or land," 

we may have good verse but no true poem. In 
his poetry there is not merely this atmosphere, 
but there is always a mirage in the horizon. 

Emerson's poetry is eminently subjective, — 
if Mr. Ruskin, who hates the word, will pardon 
me for using it in connection with a reference 
to two of his own chapters in his "Modern 
Painters." These are the chapter on " The 
Pathetic Fallacy," and the one which follows it 
" On Classical Landscape." In these he treats 
of the transfer of a writer's mental or emotional 
conditions to the external nature which he con- 
templates. He asks his readers to follow him in 
a long examination of what he calls by the sin- 
gular name mentioned, " the pathetic fallacy," 
because, he says, " he will find it eminently 
characteristic of the modern mind ; and in the 
landscape, whether of literature or artp he will 
also find the modern painter endeavoring to 
express something which he, as a living creature, 
imagines in the lifeless object, while the classical 
and mediaeval painters were content with ex- 
pressing the unimaginary and actual qualities of 
the object itself." 



EMERSON'S POEMS. 337 

Illustrations of Mr. Ruskin's "pathetic fal- 
lacy " may be found almost anywhere in Emer- 
son's poems. Here is one which offers itself 
without search : — 

" Daily the bending skies solicit man, 
The seasons chariot him from this exile, 
The rainbow hours bedeck his glowing wheels, 
The storm-winds urge the heavy weeks along, 
Suns haste to set, that so remoter lights 
Beckon the wanderer to his vaster home." 

The expression employed by Ruskin gives the 
idea that he is dealing with a defect. If he 
had called the state of mind to which he refers 
the sympathetic illusion, his readers might have 
looked upon it more justly. ' 

It would be a pleasant and not a difficult task 
to trace the resemblances between Emerson's 
poetry and that of other poets. Two or three 
such resemblances have been incidentally re- 
ferred to, a few others may be mentioned. 

In his contemplative study of Nature he re- 
minds us of Wordsworth, at least in certain 
brief passages, but he has not the staying power 
of that long-breathed, not to say long-winded, 
lover of landscapes. Both are on the most in- 
timate terms with Nature, but Emerson contem- 
plates himself as belonging to her, while Words- 
worth feels as if she belonged to him. 
22 



338 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

" Good-by, proud world," 

recalls Spenser and Kaleigh. " The Hranble- 
Bee " is strongly marked by the manner and 
thought of Mar veil. Mar veil's 

" Annihilating all that 's made 
To a green thought in a green shade," 

may well have suggested Emerson's 

" The green silence dost displace 
With thy mellow, breezy bass." 

" The Snow-Storm " naturally enough brings 
to mind the descriptions of Thomson and of 
Cowper, and fragment as it is, it will not suffer 
by comparison with either. 

" Woodnotes," one of his best poems, has 
passages that might have been found in Milton's 
" Comus ; " this, for instance : — 

" All constellations of the sky 
Shed their virtue through his eye. 
Him Nature giveth for defence 
His formidable innocence." 

Of course his Persian and Indian models be- 
tray themselves in many of his poems, some of 
which, called translations, sound as if they were 
original. 

So we follow him from page to page and find 
him passing through many moods, but with one 
pervading spirit : — 



EMERSON'S POEMS. 339 

" Melting matter into dreams, 
Panoramas which I saw, 
And whatever glows or seems 
Into substance, into Law." 

We think in reading his " Poems " of these 
words of Sainte-Beuve : — 

" The greatest poet is not he who has done the 
best ; it is he who suggests the most ; he, not all of 
whose meaning is at first obvious, and who leaves 
you much to desire, to explain, to study ; much to 
complete in your turn." 

Just what he shows himself in his prose, 
Emerson shows himself in his verse. Only 
when he gets into rhythm and rhyme he lets 
us see more of his personality, he ventures upon 
more audacious imagery, his flight is higher and 
swifter, his brief crystalline sentences have dis- 
solved and pour in continuous streams. Where 
they came from, or whither they flow to empty 
themselves, we cannot always say, — it is enough 
to enjoy them as they flow by us. 

Incompleteness — want of beginning, middle, 
and end, — is their too common fault. His pages 
are too much like those artists' studios all hung 
round with sketches and " bits " of scenery. 
" The Snow-Storm " and " Sea-Shore " are " bits " 
out of a landscape that was never painted, ad- 
mirable, so far as they go, but forcing us to ask, 
" Where is the painting for which these scraps 



340 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

are studies ? " or " Out of what great picture have 
these pieces been cut ? " 

We do not want his fragments to be made 
wholes, — if we did, what hand could be found 
equal to the task ? We do not want his rhythms 
and rhymes smoothed and made more melodious. 
They are as honest as Chaucer's, and we like 
them as they are, not modernized or manipulated 
by any versifying drill-sergeant, — if we wanted 
them reshaped whom could we trust to meddle 
with them ? 

His poetry is elemental ; it has the rock be- 
neath it in the eternal laws on which it rests ; 
the roll of deep waters in its grander harmonies ; 
its air is full of ^Eolian strains that waken and 
die away as the breeze wanders over them ; and 
through it shines the white starlight, and from 
time to time flashes a meteor that startles us 
with its sudden brilliancy. 

After all our criticisms, our selections, our 
analyses, our comparisons, we have to recognize 
that there is a charm in Emerson's poems which 
cannot be defined any more than the fragrance 
of a rose or a hyacinth, — any more than the 
tone of a voice which we should know from all 
others if all mankind were to pass before us, and 
each of its articulating representatives should 
call us by name. 



EMERSON'S POEMS. 341 

All our crucibles and alembics leave unac- 
counted for the great mystery of style. " The 
style is of [a part of] the man himself," said 
Buffon, and this saying has passed into the 
stronger phrase, " The style is the man." 

The " personal equation " which differentiates 
two observers is not confined to the tower of 
the astronomer. Every human being is individ- 
ualized by a new arrangement of elements. His 
mind is a safe with a lock to which only certain 
letters are the key. His ideas follow in an order 
of their own. His words group themselves to- 
gether in special sequences, in peculiar rhythms, 
in unlooked-for combinations, the total effect of 
which is to stamp all that he says or writes with 
his individuality. We may not be able to assign 
the reason of the fascination the poet we have 
been considering exercises over us. But this we 
can say, that he lives in the highest atmosphere 
of thought ; that he is always in the presence 
of the infinite, and ennobles the accidents of hu- 
man existence so that they partake of the ab- 
solute and eternal while he is looking at them ; 
that he unites a royal dignity of manner with 
the simplicity of primitive nature ; that his 
words and phrases arrange themselves, as if* by 
an elective affinity of their own, with a curi- 
osa felicitas which captivates and enthrals the 
reader who comes fully under its influence, and 



342 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

that through, all he sings as in all he says for 
us we recognize the same serene, high, pure in- 
telligence and moral nature, infinitely precious 
to us, not only in themselves, but as a promise of 
what the transplanted life, the air and soil and 
breeding of this western world may yet educe 
from their potential virtues, shaping themselves, 
at length, in a literature as much its own as the 
Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi. 



CHAPTER XV. 

Recollections of Emerson's Last Years. — Mr. Conway's 
Visits. — Extracts from Mr. Whitman's Journal. — Dr. Le 
Baron Russell's Visit. — Dr. Edward Emerson's Account. 
— Illness and Death. — • Funeral Services. 

Mr. Conway gives the following account of 
two visits to Emerson after the decline of his 
faculties had begun to make itself obvious : — 

" In 1875, when I stayed at his house in Concord for 
a little time, it was sad enough to find him sitting as a 
listener before those who used to sit at his feet in 
silence. But when alone with him he conversed in the 
old way, and his faults of memory seemed at times to 
disappear. There was something striking in the kind 
of forgetfulness by which he suffered. He remem- 
bered the realities and uses of things when he could 
not recall their names. He would describe what he 
wanted or thought of ; when he could not recall 
' chair ' he could speak of that which supports the 
human frame, and ' the implement that cultivates the 
soil ' must do for plough. — 

" In 1880, when I was last in Concord, the trou- 
ble had made heavy strides. The intensity of his 
silent attention to every word that was said was 
painful, suggesting a concentration of his powers 



344 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

to break through the invisible walls closing around 
them. Yet his face was serene ; he was even cheer- 
ful, and joined in our laughter at some letters his 
eldest daughter had preserved, from young girls, 
trying to coax autograph letters, and in one case 
asking for what price he would write a valedictory 
address she had to deliver at college. He was still 
able to joke about his ' naughty memory ; ' and no 
complaint came from him when he once rallied him- 
self on living too long. Emerson appeared to me 
strangely beautiful at this time, and the sweetness of 
his voice, when he spoke of the love and providence 
at his side, is quite indescribable." — 

One of the later glimpses we have of Emerson 
is that preserved in the journal of Mr. Whitman, 
who visited Concord in the autumn of 1881. 
Mr. Ireland gives a long extract from this jour- 
nal, from which I take the following : — 

" On entering he had spoken very briefly, easily 
and politely to several of the company, then settled 
himself in his chair, a trifle pushed back, and, 
though a listener and apparently an alert one, re- 
mained silent through the whole talk and discussion. 
And so, there Emerson sat, and I looking at him. 
A good color in his face, eyes clear, with the well- 
known expression of sweetness, and the old clear- 
peering aspect quite the same." 

Mr. Whitman met him again the next day, 
Sunday, September 18th, and records : — 

"As just said, a healthy color in the cheeks, and 



DR. LE BARON RUSSELL'S VISIT. 345 

good light in the eyes, cheery expression, and just the 
amount of talking that best suited, namely, a word or 
short phrase only where needed, and almost always 
with a smile." 

Dr. Le Baron Russell writes to me of Emer- 
son at a still later period : — 

"One incident I will mention which occurred at 
my last visit to Emerson, only a few months before 
his death. I went by Mrs. Emerson's request to pass 
a Sunday at their house at Concord towards the end 
of June. His memory had been failing for some 
time, and his mind as you know was clouded, but the 
old charm of his voice and manner had never left 
him. On the morning after my arrival Mrs. Emer- 
son took us into the garden to see the beautiful roses 
in which she took great delight. One red rose of 
most brilliant color she called our attention to espe- 
cially ; its ' hue ' was so truly ' angry and brave ' that 
I involuntarily repeated Herbert's line, — 

' Bid the rash gazer wipe his eye,' — 

from the verses which Emerson had first repeated to 
me so long ago. Emerson looked at the rose admir- 
ingly, and then as if by a sudden impulse lifted his 
hat gently, and said with a low bow, ' I take off my 
hat to it.' " 

Once a poet, always a poet. It was the same 
reverence for the beautiful that he had shown in 
the same way in his younger days on entering 



346 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

the wood, as Governor Rice has told us the story, 
given in an earlier chapter. 

I do not remember Emerson's last time of at- 
tendance at the " Saturday Club," but I recollect 
that he came after the trouble in finding words 
had become well marked. " My memory hides 
itself," he said. The last time I saw him, living, 
was at Longfellow's funeral. I was sitting op- 
posite to him when he rose, and going to the side 
of the coffin, looked intently upon the face of the 
dead poet. A few minutes later he rose again 
and looked once more on the familiar features, 
not apparently remembering that he had just 
done so. Mr. Conway reports that he said to a 
friend near him, " That gentleman was a sweet, 
beautiful soul, but I have entirely forgotten his 
name." 

Dr. Edward Emerson has very kindly fur- 
nished me, in reply to my request, with informa- 
tion regarding his father's last years which will 
interest every one who has followed his life 
through its morning and midday to the hour of 
evening shadows. 

" May-Day," which was published in 1867, 
was made up of the poems written since his first 
volume appeared. After this he wrote no poems, 
but with some difficulty fitted the refrain to the 
poem " Boston," which had remained unfinished 
since the old Anti-slavery days. " Greatness," 



DR. EDWARD EMERSON'S ACCOUNT. 347 

and the " Phi Beta Kappa Oration" of 1867, 
were among his last pieces of work. His Col- 
lege Lectures, " The Natural History of the In- 
tellect," were merely notes recorded years before, 
and now gathered and welded together. In 
1876 he revised his poems, and made the selec- 
tions from them for the " Little Classic " edition 
of his works, then called " Selected Poems." 
In that year he gave his "Address to the 
Students of the University of Virginia." This 
was a paper written long before, and its revision, 
with the aid of his daughter Ellen, was accom- 
plished with much difficulty. 

The year 1867 was about the limit of his 
working life. During the last five years he 
hardly answered a letter. Before this time it 
had become increasingly hard for him to do so, 
and he always postponed and thought he should 
feel more able the next day, until his daughter 
Ellen was compelled to assume the correspond- 
ence. He did, however, write some letters in 
1876, as, for instance, the answer to the invita- 
tion of the Virginia students. 

Emerson left off going regularly to the "Sat- 
urday Club" probably in 1875. He used to de- 
pend on meeting Mr. Cabot there, but after Mr. 
Cabot began to come regularly to work on " Let- 
ters and Social Aims," Emerson, who relied 
on his friendly assistance, ceased attending the 



348 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

meetings. The trouble he had in finding the 
word he wanted was a reason for his staying 
away from all gatherings where he was called 
upon to take a part in conversation, though 
he the more willingly went to lectures and 
readings and to church. His hearing was very 
slightly impaired, and his sight remained pretty 
good, though he sometimes said letters doubled, 
and that "M's" and "N's" troubled him to 
read. He recognized the members of his own 
family and his old friends ; but, as I infer from 
this statement, he found a difficulty in remem- 
bering the faces of new acquaintances, as is com- 
mon with old persons. 

He continued the habit of reading, -. — read 
through all his printed works with much interest 
and surprise, went through all his manuscripts, 
and endeavored, unsuccessfully, to index them. 
In these Dr. Emerson found written " Examined 
1877 or 1878," but he found no later date. 

In the last year or two he read anything which 
he picked up on his table, but he read the same 
things over, and whispered the words like a 
child. He liked to look over the u Advertiser," 
and was interested in the "Nation." He enjoyed 
pictures in books and showed them with delight 
to guests. 

All this with slight changes and omissions is 
from the letter of Dr. Emerson in answer to my 



DR. EDWARD EMERSON'S ACCOUNT. 349 

questions. The twilight of a long, bright day 
of life may be saddening, but when the shadow 
falls so gently and gradually, with so little that 
is painful and so much that is soothing and 
comforting, we do not shrink from following the 
imprisoned spirit to the very verge of its earthly 
existence. 

But darker hours were in the order of nature 
very near at hand. From these he was saved by 
his not untimely release from the imprisonment 
of the worn-out bodily frame. 
/In April, 1882, Emerson took a severe cold, 
and became so hoarse that he could hardly speak. 
When his son, Dr. Edward Emerson, called to 
see him, he found him on the sofa, feverish, with 
more difficulty of expression than usual, dull, 
but not uncomfortable. As he lay on his couch 
he pointed out various objects, among others a 
portrait of Carlyle "the good man, — my friend." 
His son told him that he had seen Carlyle, which 
seemed to please him much. On the following 
day the unequivocal signs of pneumonia showed 
themselves, and he failed rapidly. He still rec- 
ognized those around him, among the rest Judge 
Hoar, to whom he held out his arms for a last 
embrace. A sharp pain coming on, ether was 
administered with relief. And in a little time, 
surrounded by those who loved him and whom 
he loved, he passed quietly away. He lived very 



350 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

nearly to the completion of his eightieth year, 
having been born May 25, 1803, and his death 
occurring on the 27th of April, 1882. 

Mr. Ireland has given a full account of the 
funeral, from which are, for the most part, taken 
the following extracts : — 

" The last rites over the remains of Ralph Waldo 
Emerson took place at Concord on the 30th of April. 
A special train from Boston carried a large number 
of people. Many persons were on the street, attracted 
by the services, but were unable to gain admission to 
the church where the public ceremonies were held. 
Almost every building in town bore over its entrance- 
door a large black and white rosette with other 
sombre draperies. The public buildings were heavily 
draped, and even the homes of the very poor bore 
outward marks of grief at the loss of their friend and 
fellow-townsman. 

" The services at the house, which were strictly 
private, occurred at 2.30, and were conducted by 
Rev. W. H. Furness of Philadelphia, a kindred spirit 
and an almost life-long friend. They were simple in 
character, and only Dr. Furness took part in them. 
The body lay in the front northeast room, in which 
were gathered the family and close friends of the de- 
ceased. The only flowers were contained in three 
vases on the mantel, and were lilies of the valley, red 
and white roses, and arbutus. The adjoining room 
and hall were filled with friends and neighbors. 



FUNERAL SERVICES. 351 

" At the church many hundreds of persons were 
awaiting the arrival of the procession, and all the 
space, except the reserved pews, was packed. In front 
of the pulpit were simple decorations, boughs of pine 
covered the desk, and hi their centre was a harp of 
yellow jonquils, the gift of Miss Louisa M. Alcott. 
Among the floral tributes was one from the teachers 
and scholars in the Emerson school. By the sides of 
the pulpit were white and scarlet geraniums and pine 
boughs, and high upon the wall a laurel wreath. 

" Before 3.30 the pall-bearers brought in the plain 
black walnut coffin, which was placed before the pul- 
pit. The lid was turned back, and upon it was put 
a cluster of richly colored pansies and a small bouquet 
of roses. While the coffin was being carried in, 
* Pleyel's Hymn ' was rendered on the organ by re- 
quest of the family of the deceased. Dr. James 
Freeman Clarke then entered the pulpit. Judge E. 
Rockwood Hoar remained by the coffin below, and 
when the congregation became quiet, made a brief 
and pathetic address, his voice many times trembling 
with emotion." 

I subjoin this most impressive " Address " 
entire, from the manuscript with which Judge 
Hoar has kindly favored me : — 

" The beauty of Israel is fallen in its high place ! 
Mr. Emerson has died ; and we, his friends and 
neighbors, with this sorrowing company, have turned 
aside the procession from his home to his grave, — to 
this temple of his fathers, that we may here unite in 
our parting tribute of memory and love. 



352 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

"There is nothing to mourn for him. That brave 
and manly life was rounded out to the full length 
of days. That dying pillow was softened by the 
sweetest domestic affection ; and as he lay down to 
the sleep which the Lord giveth his beloved, his face 
was as the face of an angel, and his smile deemed to 
give a glimpse of the opening heavens. 

" Wherever the English language is spoken through- 
out the world his fame is established and secure. 
Throughout this great land and from beyond the sea 
will come innumerable voices of sorrow for this great 
public loss. But we, his neighbors and townsmen, 
feel that he was ours. He was descended from the 
founders of the town. He chose our village as the 
place where his lifelong work was to be done. It 
was to our fields and orchards that his presence gave 
such value ; it was our streets in which the children 
looked up to him with love, and the elders with rev- 
erence. He was our ornament and pride. 

" ' He is gone — is dust, — 
He the more fortunate ! Yea, he hath finished ! 
For him there is no longer any future. 
His life is bright — bright without spot it was 
And cannot cease to be. No ominous hour 
Knocks at his door with tidings of mishap. 
Far off is he, above desire and fear ; 
No more submitted to the change and chance 
Of the uncertain planets. — 

" ' The bloom is vanished from my life, 

For, oh ! he stood beside me like my youth ; 
Transformed for me the real to a dream, 



FUNERAL SERVICES. 353 

Clothing* the palpable and the familiar 
With golden exhalations of the dawn. 
Whatever fortunes wait my future toils, 
The beautiful is vanished and returns not.' 

' "That lofty brow, the home of all wise thoughts 
and high aspirations, — those lips of eloquent music, 

— that great soul, which trusted in God and never 
let go its hope of immortality, — that large heart, to 
which everything that belonged to man was welcome, 

— that hospitable nature, loving and tender and gen- 
erous, having no repulsion or scorn for anything but 
meanness and baseness, — oh, friend, brother, father, 
lover, teacher, inspirer, guide ! is there no more that 
we can do now than to give thee this our hail and 
farewell ! " 

Judge Hoar's remarks were followed by the 
congregation singing the hymns, " Thy will be 
done," " I will not fear the fate provided by 
Thy love." The Rev. Dr. Furness then read 
selections from the Scriptures. 

The Rev. James Freeman Clarke then deliv- 
ered an " Address," from which I extract two 
eloquent and inspiring passages, regretting to 
omit any that fell from lips so used to noble 
utterances and warmed by their subject, — for 
there is hardly a living person more competent 
to speak or write of Emerson than this high- 
minded and brave-souled man, who did not 
wait until he was famous to be his admirer and 
champion. 

23 



354 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

" The saying of the Liturgy is true and wise, that 
' in the midst of life we are in death.' But it is still 
more true that in the midst of death we are in life. 
Do we ever believe so much in immortality as when 
we look on such a dear and noble face, now so still, 
which a few hours ago was radiant with thought and 
love? 'He is not here: he is risen.' That power 
which we knew, — that soaring intelligence, that soul 
of fire, that ever-advancing spirit, — that cannot have 
been suddenly annihilated with the decay of these 
earthly organs. It has left its darkened dust behind. 
It has outsoared the shadow of our night. God does 
not trifle with his creatures by bringing to nothing the 
ripe fruit of the ages by the lesion of a cerebral cell, or 
some bodily tissue. Life does not die, but matter dies 
off from it. The highest energy we know, the soul of 
man, the unit in which meet intelligence, imagination, 
memory, hope, love, purpose, insight, — this agent of 
immense resource and boundless power, — this has 
not been subdued by its instrument. When we think 
of such an one as he, we can only think of life, never 
of death. 

" Such was his own faith, as expressed in his paper 
on i Immortality.' But he himself was the best argu- 
ment for immortality. Like the greatest thinkers, he 
did not rely on logical proof, but on the higher 
evidence of universal instincts, — the vast streams of 
belief which flow through human thought like cur- 
rents in the ocean ; those shoreless rivers which for- 
ever roll along their paths in the Atlantic and Pacific, 
not restrained by banks, but guided by the revolutions 
of the globe and the attractions of the sun." 



FUNERAL SERVICES. 355 



" Let us then ponder his words : — 

" ' Wilt thou not ope thy heart to know 
What rainbows teach and sunsets show ? 
Voice of earth to earth returned, 
Prayers of saints that inly burned, 
Saying, What is excellent 
As God lives, is permanent; 
Hearts are dust, hearts'' loves remain ; 
Hearts' love will meet thee again. 

• • ■ • a 

House and tenant go to ground 
Lost in God, in Godhead found.' " 

After the above address a feeling" prayer was 
offered by Rev. Howard M. Brown, of Brook- 
line, and the benediction closed the exercises in 
the church. Immediately before the benediction, 
Mr. Alcott recited the following sonnet, which he 
had written for the occasion : — ■ 

" His harp is silent : shall successors rise, 
Touching with venturous hand the trembling string, 
Kindle glad raptures, visions of surprise, 
And wake to ecstasy each slumbering thing ? 
Shall life and thought flash new in wondering eyes, 
As when the seer transcendent, sweet, and wise, 
World-wide his native melodies did sing, 
Flushed with fair hopes and ancient memories ? 
Ah, no ! That matchless lyre shall silent lie : 
None hath the vanished minstrel's wondrous skill 
To touch that instrument with art and will. 
With him, winged poesy doth droop and die ; 
While our dull age, left voiceless, must lament 
The bard high heaven had for its service sent." 



856 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

" Over an hour was occupied by the passing files 
of neighbors, friends, and visitors looking for the last 
time upon the face of the dead poet. The body was 
robed completely in white, and the face bore a natural 
and peaceful expression. From the church the pro- 
cession took its way to the cemetery. The grave was 
made beneath a tall pine-tree upon the hill-top of 
Sleepy Hollow, where lie the bodies of his friends 
Thoreau and Hawthorne, the upturned sod being 
concealed by strewings of pine boughs. A border of 
hemlock spray surrounded the grave and completely 
lined its sides. The services here were very brief, 
and the casket was soon lowered to its final resting- 
place. 

" The Rev. Dr. Haskins, a cousin of the family, an 
Episcopal clergyman, read the Episcopal Burial Ser- 
vice, and closed with the Lord's Prayer, ending at the 
words, ' and deliver us from evil.' In this all the 
people joined. Dr. Haskins then pronounced the ben- 
ediction. After it was over the grandchildren passed 
the open grave and threw flowers into it," 

So vanished from human eyes the bodily pres- 
ence of Ralph Waldo Emerson, and his finished 
record belongs henceforth to memory. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

EMERSON. — A RETROSPECT. 

Personality and Habits of Life. — His Commission and Er- 
rand. — As a Lecturer. — His Use of Authorities. — Resem- 
blance to Other Writers. — As influenced by Others. — His 
Place as a Thinker. — Idealism and Intuition. — Mysticism. 
— His Attitude respecting Science. — As an American. — 
His Fondness for Solitary Study. — His Patience and 
Amiability. — Feeling with which he was regarded. — Emer- 
son and Burns. — His Religious Belief. — His Relations 
with Clergymen. — Future of his Reputation. — His Life 
judged by the Ideal Standard. 

Emerson's earthly existence was in the esti- 
mate of his own philosophy so slight an occur- 
rence in his career of being that his relations to 
the accidents of time and space seem quite sec- 
ondary matters to one who has been long living 
in the companionship of his thought. Still, he 
had to be born, to take in his share of the at- 
mosphere in which we are all immersed, to have 
dealings with the world of phenomena, and at 
length to let them all " soar and sing " as he left 
his earthly half-way house. It is natural and 
pardonable that we should like to know the de- 
tails of the daily life which the men whom we 



358 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

admire have shared with common mortals, our- 
selves among the rest. But Emerson has said 
truly " Great geniuses have the shortest biogra- 
phies. Their cousins can tell you nothing about 
them. They lived in their writings, and so their 
home and street life was trivial and common- 
place." 

The reader has had many extracts from Emer- 
son's writings laid before him. It was no easy 
task to choose them, for his paragraphs are so 
condensed, so much in the nature of abstracts, 
that it is like distilling absolute alcohol to at- 
tempt separating the spirit of what he says from 
his undiluted thought. /His books are all so full 
of his life to their last syllable that we might 
letter every volume Emersoniana, by Ralph 
Waldo Emerson. / 

From the numerous extracts I have given 
from Emerson's writings it may be hoped that 
the reader will have formed an idea for himself 
of the man and of the life which have been the 
subjects of these pages. But he may probably 
expect something like a portrait of the poet and 
moralist from the hand of his biographer, if the 
author of this Memoir may borrow the name 
which will belong to a future and better equipped 
laborer in the same field. He may not unreason- 
ably look for some general estimate of the life- 
work of the scholar and thinker of whom he has 



PERSONALITY AND HABITS OF LIFE. 359 

been reading. He will not be disposed to find 
fault with the writer of the Memoir if he men- 
tions many things which would seem very trivial 
but for the interest they borrow from the indi- 
vidual to whom they relate. 

/Emerson's personal appearance was that of a 
scholar, the descendant of scholars. He was tall 
and slender, with the complexion which is bred 
in the alcove and not in the open air. He used 
to tell his son Edward that he measured six feet 
in his shoes, but his son thinks he could hardly 
have straightened himself to that height in his 
later years. He was very light for a man of 
his stature./ He got on the scales at Cheyenne, 
on his trip to California, comparing his weight 
with that of a lady of the party. A little while 
afterwards he asked of his fellow-traveller, Pro- 
fessor Thayer, " How much did I weigh ? A 
hundred and forty?" "A hundred and forty 
and a half," was the answer. "Yes, yes, a hun- 
dred and forty and a half ! That half I prize ; 
it is an index of better things ! " 

Emerson's head was not stich as Schopen- 
hauer insists upon for a philosopher/ He wore 
a hat measuring six and seven eighths on the 
ceplialometer used by hatters, which is equiva- 
lent to twenty-one inches and a quarter of cir- 
cumference. The average size is from seven to 
seven and an eighth, so that his head was quite 



s 



360 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

small in that dimension, /k, was long and nar- 
row, but lofty, almost symmetrical, and of more 
nearly equal breadth in its anterior and poste- 
rior regions than many or most heads. / 

His shoulders sloped so much as to be com- 
mented upon for this peculiarity by Mr. Gilfil- 
lan, and like " Amnion's great son," he carried 
one shoulder a little higher than the other. His 
face was thin, his nose somewhat accipitrine, 
casting a broad shadow ; his mouth rather wide, 
well formed and well closed, carrying a question 
and an assertion in its finely finished curves ; the 
lower lip a little prominent, the chin shapely and 
firm, as becomes the corner-stone of the counte- 
nance. His expression was calm, sedate, kindly, 
with that look of refinement, centring about the 
lips, which is rarely found in the male New Eng- 
lander, unless the family features have been for 
two or three cultivated generations the battle- 
field and the playground of varied thoughts and 
complex emotions as well as the sensuous and 
nutritive port of entry. His whole look was ir- 
radiated by an ever active inquiring intelligence. 
His manner was noble and gracious. Few of our 
fellow-countrymen have had larger opportunities 
of seeing distinguished personages than our pres- 
ent minister at the Court of St. James. In a 
recent letter to myself, which I trust Mr. Lowell 
will pardon my quoting, he says of Emerson : — 



yS* PERSONALITY AND HABITS OF LIFE. 361 

" Tliere was a majesty about him beyond all 
other men I have known, and he habitually 
dwelt in that ampler and diviner air to which 
most of us, if ever, only rise in spurts." 

From members of his own immediate family 
I have derived some particulars relating to his 
personality and habits which are deserving of 
record. 

His hair was brown, quite fine, and, till he 
was fifty, very thick. His eyes were of the 
" strongest and brightest blue." The member 
of the family who tells me this says : — 

" My sister and I have looked for many years 
to see whether any one else had such absolutely 
blue eyes, and have never found them except in 
sea-captains. I have seen three sea-captains who 
had them." 

He was not insensible to music, but his gift 
in that direction was very limited, if we may 
judge from this family story. When he was in 
College, and the singing-master was gathering 
his pupils, Emerson presented himself, intending 
to learn to sing. The master received him, and 
when his turn came, said to him, " Chord ! " 
" What ? " said Emerson. " Chord ! Chord ! I 
tell you," repeated the master. " I don't know 
what you mean," said Emerson. " Why, sing ! 
Sing a note." " So I made some kind of a noise, 
and the singing-master said, ' That will do, sir. 
You need not come again.' " , 



362 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

/ 

Emerson's mode of living was very simple: 
coffee in the morning, tea in the evening, animal 
food by choice only once a day, wine only when 
with others using it, but always .pie at breakfast. 
"It stood before him and was the first thing 
eaten." Ten o'clock was his bed-time, six his 
hour of rising until the last ten years of his life, 
when he rose at seven. Work or company some- 
times led him to sit up late, and this he could 
do night after night. He never was hungry, — 
could go any time from breakfast to tea without 
food and not know it, but was always ready for 
food when it was set before him. ■' 

He always walked from about four in the 
afternoon till tea-time, and often longer when 
the day was fine, or he felt that he should work 
the better. / 

It is plain from his writings that Emerson 

was possessed all his life long with the idea of 

his constitutional infirmity and insufficiency. He 

hated invalidism, and had little patience with 

complaints about ill-health, but in his poems, 

and once or twice in his letters to Carlyle, he 

expresses himself with freedom about his own 

bodily inheritance/ In 1827, being then but 

twenty-four years old, he writes : — 

" I bear in youth the sad infirmities / 
That use to undo the limb and sense of age." 



PERSONALITY AND HABITS OF LIFE. 868 

Four years later : — 

" Has God on thee conferred 

A bodily presence mean as Paul's, 
Yet made thee bearer of a word 

Which sleepy nations as with trumpet calls ? " 

and again, in the same year : — 

" Leave me, Fear, thy throbs are base, 
Trembling for the body's sake." — 

Almost forty years from the first of these dates 
we find him bewailing his inherited weakness of 
organization in " Terminus." 

And in writing to Carlyle, he says : — 

" You are of the Anakim and know nothing 
of the debility and postponement of the blonde 
constitution." 

Again, " I am the victim of miscellany — mis- 
cellany of designs, vast debility and procrasti- 
nation." 

He thought too much of his bodily insufficien- 
cies, which, it will be observed, he only refers to 
in his private correspondence, and in that semi- 
nudity of self -revelation which is the privilege of 
poetry. His presence was fine and impressive, 
and his muscular strength was enough to make 
him a rapid and enduring walker. 
X Emerson's voice had a great charm in conver- 
' sation, as in the lecture-room. It was never 
loud, never shrill, but singularly penetrating. 
He was apt to hesitate in the course of a sen- 



364 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

tence, so as to be sure of the exact word he 
wanted ; picking his way through his vocabulary, 
to get at the best expression of his thought, as a 
well-dressed woman crosses the muddy pavement 
to reach the opposite sidewalk. It was this nat- 
ural slight and not unpleasant semicolon paus- 
ing of the memory which grew upon him in his 
years of decline, until it rendered conversation 
laborious and painful to him. / 
/He never laughed loudly. When he laughed 
it was under protest, as it were, with closed 
doors, his mouth shut, so that the explosion had 
to seek another respiratory channel, and found 
its way out quietly, while his eyebrows and nos- 
trils and all his features betrayed the " ground 
swell," as Professor Thayer happily called it, of 
the half-suppressed convulsion. He was averse 
to loud laughter in others, and objected to Mar- 
garet Fuller that she made him laugh too much^^ 

Emerson was not rich in some of those nat- 
ural gifts which are considered the birthright of 
the New Englander. He had not the mechanical 
turn of the whittling Yankee. I once questioned 
him about his manual dexterity, and he told me 
he could split a shingle four ways with one nail, 
— which, as the intention is not to split it at all 
in fastening it to the roof of a house or else- 
where, I took to be a confession of inaptitude 
for mechanical works. He does not seem to have 



PERSONALITY AND HABITS OF LIFE. 365 

been very accomplished in the handling of agri- 
cultural implements either, for it is told in the 
family that his little son, Waldo, seeing him at 
work with a spade, cried out, " Take care, papa, 
— you will dig your leg." 

He used to regret that he had no ear for music. 
I have said enough about his verse, which often 
jars on a sensitive ear, showing a want of the 
nicest perception of harmonies and discords in 
the arrangement of the words. 

There are stories which show that Emerson 
had a retentive memory in the earlier part of his 
life. It is hard to say from his books whether 
he had or not, for he jotted down such a multi- 
tude of things in his diary that this was a kind 
of mechanical memory which supplied him with 
endless materials of thought and subjects for his 
pen. 

' Lover and admirer of Plato as Emerson was, 
the doors of the academy, over which was the 

inscription jU/^Sei? aycoifxirp-qTO^ ecretrw, — Let no 

one unacquainted with geometry enter here, — 
would have been closed to him. All the exact 
sciences found him an unwilling learner. He 
says of himself that he cannot multiply seven 
by twelve with impunity. 

In an unpublished manuscript kindly sub- 
mitted to me by Mr. Frothingham, Emerson is 
reported as saying, " God has given me the 



366 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

seeing eye, but not the working hand." His gift 
was insight : he saw the germ through its en- 
velop ; the particular in the light of the univer- 
sal ; the fact in connection with the principle ; 
the phenomenon as related to the law ; all this 
not by the slow and sure process of science, but 
by the sudden and searching flashes of imagina- 
tive double vision. He had neither the patience 
nor the method of the inductive reasoner ; he 
passed from one thought to another not by log- 
ical steps but by airy flights, which left no foot- 
prints. This mode of intellectual action when 
found united with natural sagacity becomes poe- 
try, philosophy, wisdom, or prophecy in its various 
forms of manifestation. Without that gift of 
natural sagacity (odoratio qucedam venatica), — 
a good scent for truth and beauty, — it appears 
as extravagance, whimsicality, eccentricity, or 
insanity, according to its degree of aberration. 
Emerson was eminently sane for an idealist. He 
carried the same sagacity into the ideal world 
that Franklin showed in the affairs of common 

life/ 

/ He was constitutionally fastidious, and had 

to school himself to become able to put up with 
the terrible inflictions of uncongenial fellow- 
ships. / We must go to his poems to get at his 
weaknesses. The clown of the first edition of 
" Monadnoc " " with heart of cat and eyes of 



PERSONALITY AND HABITS OF LIFE. 367 

bug," disappears in the after- thought of the later 
version of the poem, but the eye that recognized 
him and the nature that recoiled from him were 
there still. What must he not have endured 
from the persecutions of small-minded worship- 
pers who fastened upon him for the interminable 
period between the incoming and the outgoing 
railroad train ! He was a model of patience and 
good temper. We might have feared that he 
lacked the sensibility to make such intrusions and 
offences an annoyance/ But when Mr. Froth- 
in gham gratifies the public with those most in- 
teresting personal recollections which I have had 
the privilege of looking over, it will be seen that 
his equanimity, admirable as it was, was not in- 
capable of being disturbed, and that on rare 
occasions he could give way to the feeling which 
showed itself of old in the doom pronounced on 
the barren fig-tree. 
y Of Emerson's affections his home-life, and 
those tender poems in memory of his brothers 
and his son, give all the evidence that could be 
asked or wished for. His friends were all who 
knew him, for none could be his enemy; and his 
simple graciousness of manner, with the sincerity 
apparent in every look and tone, hardly admitted 
indifference on the part of any who met him, 
were it but for a single hour. Even the little 
children knew and loved him, and babes in arms 



368 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

returned liis angelic smile. /Of the friends who 
were longest and most intimately associated with 
him, it is needless to say much in this place. 
Of those who are living, it is hardly time to 
speak ; of those who are dead, much has already 
been written. Margaret Fuller, — I must call 
my early schoolmate as I best remember her, — 
leaves her life pictured in the mosaic of five 
artists, — Emerson himself among the number ; 
Thoreau is faithfully commemorated in the lov- 
ing memoir by Mr. Sanborn ; Theodore Parker 
lives in the story of his life told by the eloquent 
Mr. Weiss ; Hawthorne awaits his portrait from 
the master-hand of Mr. Lowell. 

How nearly any friend, other than his broth- 
ers Edward and Charles, came to him, I cannot 
say, indeed I can hardly guess. That "majesty " 
Mr. Lowell speaks of always seemed to hedge 
him round like the divinity that doth hedge 
a king. What man was he who would lay his 
hand familiarly upon his shoulder and call him 
Waldo ? No disciple of Father Mathew would 
be likely to do such a thing. There may have 
been such irreverent persons, but if any one 
had so ventured at the " Saturday Club," it 
would have produced a sensation like BrummelV 
" George, ring the bell," to the Prince Regent. 
His ideas of friendship, as of love, seem almost 
too exalted for our earthly conditions, and sug- 



HIS COMMISSION AND ERRAND. 369 

gest the thought as do many others of his char- 
acteristics, that the spirit which animated his 
mortal frame had missed its way on the shin- 
ing path to some brighter and better sphere of 
being. 

Not so did Emerson appear among the plain 
working farmers of the village in which he lived. 
He was a good, unpretending fellow-citizen who 
put on no airs, who attended town-meetings, took 
his part in useful measures, was no great hand 
at farming, but was esteemed and respected, and 
felt to be a principal source of attraction to Con- 
cord, for strangers came flocking to the place as 
if it held the tomb of Washington. 

What was the errand on which he visited our 
earth, — the message with which he came com- 
missioned from the Infinite source of all life ? 

Every human soul leaves its port with sealed 
orders. These may be opened earlier or later 
on its voyage, but until they are opened no one 
can tell what is to be his course or to what har- 
bor he is bound. 

Emerson inherited the traditions of the Bos-' 
ton pulpit, such as they were, damaged, in the 
view of the prevailing sects of the country, 
perhaps by too long contact with the " Sons of 
Liberty," and their revolutionary notions. But 
the most " liberal " Boston pulpit still held to 
24 



370 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

many doctrines, forms, and phrases open to the 
challenge of any independent thinker. 

In the year 1832 this young priest, then a 
settled minister, "began," as was said of an- 
other, — " to be about thirty years of age." He 
had opened his sealed orders and had read 
therein : 

Thou shalt not profess that which thou dost 
not believe. 

Thou shalt not heed the voice of man when it 
agrees not with the voice of God in thine own 
soul. 

Thou shalt study and obey the laws of the 
Universe and they will be thy fellow-servants. 

Thou shalt speak the truth as thou seest it, 
without fear, in the spirit of kindness to all thy 
fellow-creatures, dealing with the manifold in- 
terests of life and the typical characters of his- 
tory. 

Nature shall be to thee as a symbol. The life 
of the soul, in conscious union with the Infinite, 
shall be for thee the only real existence. 

This pleasing show of an external worli 
through which thou art passing is given thee to 
interpret by the light which is in thee. Its least 
appearance is not unworthy of thy study. Let 
thy soul be open and thine eyes will reveal to 
thee beauty everywhere. 

Go forth with thy message among thy fellow- 



SIS COMMISSION AND ERRAND. 371 

creatures ; teach them that they must trust 
themselves as guided by that inner light which 
dwells with the pure in heart, to whom it was 
promised of old that they shall see Grod. 

Teach them that each generation begins the 
world afresh, in perfect freedom ; that the pres- 
ent is not the prisoner of the past, but that to- 
day holds captive all yesterdays, to compare, to 
judge, to accept, to reject their teachings, as 
these are shown by its own morning's sun. 

To thy fellow-countrymen thou shalt preach 
the gospel of the New World, that here, here in 
our America, is the home of man ; that here is 
the promise of a new and inore excellent social 
state than history has recorded. 

Thy life shall be as thy teachings, brave, 
pure, truthful, beneficent, hopeful, cheerful, hos- 
pitable to all honest belief, all sincere thinkers, 
and active according to thy gifts and opportu- 
nities. 

He was true to the orders he had received. 
Through doubts, troubles, privations, oj)position, 

he would not 

" bate a jot 
Of heart or hope, but still bear up and steer 
Right onward." 

All through the writings of Emerson the spirit 
of these orders manifests itself. His range of 



372 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

subjects is very wide, ascending to the highest 
sphere of spiritual contemplation, bordering on 
that " intense inane " where thought loses itself 
in breathless ecstasy, and stooping to the home- 
liest maxims of prudence and the every-day les- 
sons of good manners. And all his work was 
done, not so much 

" As ever in his great Taskmaster's eye," 

as in the ever-present sense of divine companion- 
ship. 

He was called to sacrifice his living, his posi- 
tion, his intimacies, to a doubt, and he gave them 
all up without a murmur. He might have been 
an idol, and he broke his own pedestal to attack 
the idolatry which he saw all about him. He 
gave up a comparatively easy life for a toilsome 
and trying one; he accepted a precarious em- 
ployment, which hardly kept him above poverty, 
rather than wear the golden padlock on his lips 
which has held fast the conscience of so many 
pulpit Chrysostoms. Instead of a volume or 
two of sermons, bridled with a text and har- 
nessed with a confession of faith, he bequeathed 
us a long series of Discourses and Essays in 
which we know we have his honest thoughts, 
free from that professional bias which tends to 
make the pulpit teaching of the fairest-minded 
preacher follow a diagonal of two forces, — the 



HIS COMMISSION AND ERRAND. 873 

promptings of his personal and his ecclesiastical 
opinions. 

Without a church or a pulpit, he soon had a 
congregation. It was largely made up of young 
persons of both sexes, young by nature, if not 
in years, who, tired of routine and f orniulse, and 
full of vague aspirations, found in his utterances 
the oracles they sought. To them, in the words 
of his friend and neighbor Mr. Alcott, he 

" Sang his full song of hope and lofty cheer." 

Nor was it only for a few seasons that he drew 
his audiences of devout listeners around him. 
Another poet, his Concord neighbor, Mr. San- 
born, who listened to him many years after the 
first flush of novelty was over, felt the same en- 
chantment, and recognized the same inspiring 
life in his words, which had thrilled the souls of 
those earlier listeners. 

" His was the task and his the lordly gift 
Our eyes, our hearts, bent earthward, to uplift." 

This was his power, — to inspire others, to make 
life purer, loftier, calmer, brighter. Optimism 
is what the young want, and he could no more 
help taking the hopeful view of the universe and 
its future than Claude could help flooding his 
landscapes with sunshine. 

"Nature," published in 1836, "the first clear 
manifestation of his genius," as Mr. Norton calls 



374 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

it, revealed him as an idealist and a poet, with 
a tendency to mysticism. If he had been inde- 
pendent in circumstances, he would doubtless 
have developed more freely in these directions. 
But he had his living to get and a family to 
support, and he must look about him for some 
paying occupation. The lecture-room naturally 
presented itself to a scholar accustomed to speak- 
ing from the pulpit. This medium of communi- 
cating thought was not as yet very popular, and 
the rewards it 'offered were but moderate. Emer- 
son was of a very hopeful nature, however, and 
believed in its possibilities. 

— "I am always haunted with brave dreams 
of what might be accomplished in the lecture- 
room, . — so free and so unpretending a platform, 
— a Delos not yet made fast. I imagine an 
eloquence of infinite variety, rich as conversation 
can be, with anecdote, joke, tragedy, epics and 
pindarics, argument and confession." So writes 
Emerson to Carlyle in 1841. 

It would be as unfair to overlook the special 
form in which Emerson gave most of his thoughts 
to the world, as it would be to leave out of view 
the calling of Shakespeare in judging his liter- 
ary character. Emerson was an essayist and a 
lecturer, as Shakespeare was a dramatist and a 
play-actor. 

The exigencies of the theatre account for 



AS A LECTURER. 375 

much that is, as it were, accidental in the writ- 
ings of Shakespeare. The demands of the lec- 
ture-room account for many peculiarities which 
are characteristic of Emerson as an author. 
The play must be in five acts, each of a given 
length. The lecture must fill an hour and not 
overrun it. Both play and lecture must be 
vivid, varied, picturesque, stimulating, or the 
audience would tire before the allotted time was 
over. >^ 

Both writers had this in common : they were 
poets and moralists. They reproduced the con- 
ditions of life in the light of penetrative observa- 
tion and ideal contemplation ; they illustrated 
its duties in their breach and in their observ- 
ance, by precepts and well-chosen portraits of 
character. The particular form in which they 
wrote makes little difference when we come upon 
the utterance of a noble truth or an elevated 
sentiment. 

It was not a simple matter of choice with the 
dramatist or the lecturer in what direction they 
should turn their special gifts. The actor had 
learned his business on the stage ; the lecturer 
had gone through his apprenticeship in the pul- 
pit. Each had his bread to earn, and he must 
work, and work hard, in the way open before 
him. For twenty years the playwright wrote 
dramas, and retired before middle age with a 



376 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

good estate to his native town. For forty years 
Emerson lectured and published lectures, and 
established himself at length in competence in 
the village where his ancestors had lived and 
died before him. He never became rich, as 
Shakespeare did. He was never in easy circum- 
stances until he was nearly seventy years old. 
Lecturing was hard work, but he was under the 
" base necessity," as he called it, of constant 
labor, writing in summer, speaking everywhere 
east and west in the trying and dangerous win- 
ter season. 
/ He spoke in great cities to such cultivated 
audiences as no other man could gather about 
him, and in remote villages where he addressed 
plain people whose classics were the Bible and 
the " Farmer's Almanac." Wherever he ap- 
peared in the lecture -room, he fascinated his 
listeners by his voice and manner ; the music of 
his speech pleased those who found his thought 
too subtle for their dull wits to follow. 

When the Lecture had served its purpose, it 
came before the public in the shape of an Essay. 
But the Essay never lost the character it bor- 
rowed from the conditions under which it was 
delivered; it was a lay sermon, — concio ad p op- 
uluni. We must always remember what we are 
dealing with. " Expect nothing more of my 
power of construction, — no ship - building, no 



AS A LECTURER. 37J 

clipper, smack, nor skiff even, only boards and 
logs tied together." - — " Here I sit and read and 
write, with very little system, and, as far as re- 
gards composition, with the most fragmentary 
result : paragraphs incompressible, each sentence 
an infinitely repellent particle." We have then 
a moralist and a poet appearing as a Lecturer 
and an Essayist, and now and then writing in 
verse. He liked the freedom of the platform. 
"I preach in the Lecture-room," he says, "and 
there it tells, for there is no prescription. You 
may laugh, weep, reason, sing, sneer, or pray, 
according to your genius." .In England, he 
says, " I find this lecturing a key which opens 
all doors." But he did not tend to overvalue 
the calling which from " base necessity " he fol- 
lowed so diligently. " Incorrigible spouting Yan^ 
kee," he calls himself ; and again, " I peddle 
out all the wit I can gather from Time or from 
Nature, and am pained at heart to see how 
thankfully that little is received."/ Lecture- 
peddling was a hard business and a poorly paid 
one in the earlier part of the time when Emerson 
was carrying his precious wares about the country 
and offering them in competition with the cheap- 
est itinerants, with shilling concerts and negro- 
minstrel entertainments. But one could get a 
kind of living out of it if he had invitations 
enough. I remember Emerson's coming to my 



378 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

house to know if I could fill his place at a 
certain Lyceum so that he might accept a very 
advantageous invitation in another direction. I 
told him that I was unfortunately engaged for 
the evening mentioned. He smiled serenely, say- 
ing that then he supposed he must give up the 
new stove for that season. 

No man would accuse Emerson of parsimony 
of ideas. He crams his pages with the very 
marrow of his thought. But in weighing out a 
lecture he was as punctilious as Portia about the 
pound of flesh. His utterance was deliberate 
and spaced with not infrequent slight delays. 
Exactly at the end of the hour the lecture 
stopped. Suddenly, abruptly, but quietly, with- 
out peroration of any sort, always with " a gentle 
shock of mild surprise " to the unprepared lis- 
tener. He had weighed out the full measure to 
his audience with perfect fairness. J 

iacrre rd\avra yvvfy x*P v V Tls olXtjO^js 
"tire aradphp exovcra kcu eipiov, afx<pls ciyeA/cei 
3 l(rd£ovs, tva iraicrlv aei/cea /xiaObu 'apy}Tcu, 

or, in Bryant's version, 

" as the scales 
Are held by some just woman, who maintains 
By spinning wool her household, — carefully 
She poises both the wool and weights, to make 
The balance even, that she may provide 
A pittance for her babes." — 



AS A LECTURER. . 379 

As to the cliarm of his lectures all are agreed. 
It is needless to handle this subject, for Mr. 
Lowell has written upon it. Of their effect on 
his younger listeners he says, " To some of us 
that long past experience remains the most mar- 
vellous and fruitful we have ever had. Emer- 
son awakened us, saved us from the body of this 
death. It is the sound of the trumpet that the 
young soul longs for, careless of what breath 
may fill it. Sidney heard it in the ballad of 
4 Chevy Chase,' and we in Emerson. ' Nor did it 
blow retreat, but called us with assurance of 
victory." 

There was, besides these stirring notes, a sweet 
seriousness in Emerson's voice that was infinitely 
soothing. So might " Peace, be still," have 
sounded from the lips that silenced the storm. 
I remember that in the dreadful war-time, on 
one of the days of anguish and terror, I fell in 
with Governor Andrew, on his way to a lecture 
of Emerson's, where he was going, he said, to 
relieve the strain upon his mind. An hour 
passed in listening to that flow of thought, calm 
and clear as the diamond drops that distil from 
a mountain rock, was a true nepenthe for a care- 
worn soul. 

/ An author whose writings are like mosaics 
must have borrowed from many quarries. Em- 



380 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

erson had read more or less thoroughly through 
a very wide range of authors. J\ shall presently 
show how extensive was his reading. /No doubt 
he had studied certain authors diligently, a few, 
it would seem, thoroughly. But let no one be 
frightened away from his pages by the terrible 
names of Plotinus and Proclus and Porphyry, 
of Behmen or Spinoza, or of those modern Ger- 
man philosophers with whom it is not pretended 
that he had any intimate acquaintance. Mr. 
George Ripley, a man of erudition, a keen critic, 
a lover and admirer of Emerson, speaks very 
plainly of his limitations as a scholar. 

" As he confesses in the Essay on ' Books,' 
his learning is second hand ; but everything 
sticks which his mind can appropriate. He de- 
fends the use of translations, and I doubt whether 
he has ever read ten pages of his great authori- 
ties, Plato, Plutarch, Montaigne, or Goethe, in 
the original. He is certainly no friend of pro- 
found study any more than of philosophical 
speculation. Give him a few brilliant and sug- 
gestive glimpses, and he is content. 'I*-"" 

One correction I must make to this statement. 
Emerson says he has " contrived to read " al- 
most every volume of Goethe, and that he has 
fifty-five of them, but that he has read nothing 
else in German, and has not looked into him for 
a long time. This was in 1840, in a letter to 



HIS USE OF AUTHORITIES. 381 

Carlyle. It was up-hill work, it may be sus- 
pected, but he could not well be ignorant of his 
friend's great idol, and his references to Goethe 
are very frequent. 

Emerson's quotations are like the miraculous 
draught of fishes. I hardly know his rivals 
except Burton and Cotton Mather. But no one 
would accuse him of pedantry. Burton quotes 
to amuse himself and his reader ; Mather quotes 
to show his learning, of which he had a vast 
conceit ; Emerson quotes to illustrate some orig- 
inal thought of his own, or because another wri- 
ter's way of thinking falls in with his own, — 
never with a trivial purpose. Reading as he 
did, he must have unconsciously appropriated a 
great number of thoughts from others. But he 
was profuse in his references to those from 
whom he borrowed, — more profuse than many 
of his readers would believe without taking the 
pains to count his authorities/ This I thought 
it worth while to have done, once for all, and 
I will briefly present the results of the examina- 
tion. /The named references, chiefly to authors, 
as given in the table before me/ are three thou- 
sand three hundred and ninety-three, relating to 
eight hundred and sixty-eight different individ- 
uals. J. Of these, four hundred and eleven are 
mentioned more than once ; one hundred and 
fifty-five, five times or more ; sixty-nine, ten 



382 



RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 



times or more ; thirty-eight, fifteen times or 
more ; and twenty-seven, twenty times or more. 
These twenty-seven names alone, the list of 
which is here given, furnish no less than one 
thousand and sixty-five references. 



, 




Number of times 


Authorities. mentioned. 


Shakespeare . . . .112 


Napoleon . . 








84 


Plato . 










81 


Plutarch . 










70 


Goethe 










62 


Swift . 










49 


Bacon . 










47 


Milton . 










46 


Newton . 










43 


Homer 










42 


Socrates 










. 42 


Swedenborg 








. 40 


Montaigne 








. 30 


Saadi . . 








. 30 


Luther 


. 








. 30 



a i-u -j.- Number of times 

Authorities. mentioned. 

Webster ..... 27 

Aristotle ..... 25 

Hafiz . ^ 25 

Wordsworth ... 25 

Burke 24 

Saint Paul 24 

Dante ...... 22 

Shattuck (Hist, of Con- 
cord) 21 

Chaucer 20 

Coleridge .... 20 
Michael Angelo . .20 
The name of Jesus 
occurs fifty - four 
times. 



It is interesting to observe that Montaigne, 
Franklin, and Emerson all show the same fond- 
ness for Plutarch. 

Montaigne says, " I never settled myself to 
the reading of any book of solid learning but 
Plutarch and Seneca." 

Franklin says, speaking of the books in his 
father's library, " There was among them Plu- 
tarch's Lives, which I read abundantly, and I 
still think that time spent to great advantage." 

Emerson says, " I must think we are more 



HIS USE OF AUTHORITIES. 383 

deeply indebted to hira than to all the ancient 
writers." 

Studies of life and character were the delight 
of all these four moralists. As a judge of char- 
acter, Dr. Hedge, who knew Emerson well, has 
spoken to me of his extraordinary gift, and no 
reader of " English Traits " can have failed to 
mark the formidable penetration of the intellect 
which looked through those calm cerulean eyes. 

Noscitur a sociis is as applicable to the books 
a man most affects as well as to the companions 
he chooses. It is with the kings of thought that 
Emerson most associates. As to borrowing from 
his royal acquaintances his ideas are very simple 
and exj)ressed without reserve. 

"All minds quote. Old and new make the 
warp and woof of every moment. There is no 
thread that is not a twist of these two strands. 
By necessity, by proclivity, and by delight, we 
all quote." 

What Emerson says of Plutarch applies very 
nearly to himself. 

" In his immense quotation and allusion we 
quickly cease to discriminate between what he 
quotes and what he invents. We sail on his 
memory into the ports of every nation, enter 
into every private property, and do not stop to 
discriminate owners, but give him the praise of 
all." 



/ 



/ 



384 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

Mr. Ruskin and Lord Tennyson have thought 
it worth their while to defend themselves from 
the charge of plagiarism. Emerson would never 
have taken the trouble to do such a thing. His 
mind was overflowing with thought as a river in 
the season of flood, and was full of floating frag- 
ments from an endless variety of sources. He 
drew ashore whatever he wanted that would serve 
his purpose. He makes no secret of his mode of 
writing. " I dot evermore in my endless jour- 
nal, a line on every knowable in nature ; but the 
arrangement loiters long, and I get a brick-kiln 
instead of a house." His journal is " full of dis- 
jointed dreams and audacities." Writing by the 
aid of this, it is natural enough that he should 
speak of his " lapidary style " and say " I build 
my house of boulders." 

"It is to be remembered," says Mr. Ruskin, 
" that all men who have sense and feeling are 
continually helped : they are taught by every 
person they meet, and enriched by everything 
that falls in their way. The greatest is he who 
has been of tenest aided ; and if the attainments 
of all human minds could be traced to their real 
sources, it would be found that the world had 
been laid most under contribution by the men 
of most original powers, and that every day of 
their existence deepened their debt to their race, 
while it enlarged their gifts to it." 



HIS USE OF AUTHORITIES. 385 

The reader may like to see a few coincidences 
between Emerson's words and thoughts and 
those of others. 

Some sayings seem to be a kind of family 
property. " Scorn trifles " comes from Aunt 
Mary Moody Emerson, and reappears in her 
nephew, Ralph Waldo. — " What right have 
you, Sir, to your virtue ? Is virtue piecemeal ? 
This is a jewel among the rags of a beggar." 
So writes Ralph Waldo Emerson in his Lec- 
ture " New England Reformers." — " Hiding the 
badges of royalty beneath the gown of the men- 
dicant, and ever on the watch lest their rank be 
betrayed by the sparkle of a gem from under 
their rags." Thus wrote Charles Chauncy Em- 
erson in the " Harvard Register " nearly twenty 
years before. 

" The hero is not fed on sweets, 
Daily his own heart he eats." 

The image comes from Pythagoras via Plutarch. 

Now and then, but not with any questionable 
frequency, we find a sentence which recalls Car- 
lyle. 

" The national temper, in the civil history, is 
not flashy or whiffling. The slow, deep English 
mass smoulders with fire, which at last sets all 
its borders in flame. The wrath of London is 
not French wrath, but has a long memory, and 
in hottest heat a register and rule." 



386 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

Compare this passage from " English Traits " 
with the following one from Carlyle's " French 
Revolution " : — 

" So long this Gallic fire, through its succes- 
sive changes of color and character, will blaze 
over the face of Europe, and afflict and scorch 
all men : — till it provoke all men, till it kindle 
another kind of fire, the Teutonic kind, namely; 
and be swallowed up, so to speak, in a day ! 
For there is a fire comparable to the burning of 
dry jungle and grass ; most sudden, high-blaz- 
ing : and another fire which we liken to the 
burning of coal, or even of anthracite coal, but 
which no known thing will put out." 

" O what are heroes, prophets, men 
But pipes through which the breath of man doth blow 
A momentary music." 

The reader will find a similar image in one of 
Burns's letters, again in one of Coleridge's poet- 
ical fragments, and long before any of them, in 
a letter of Leibnitz. 

" He builded better than he knew " 

is the most frequently quoted line of Emerson. 
The thought is constantly recurring in our liter- 
ature. It helps out the minister's sermon ; and a 
Fourth of July Oration which does not borrow it 
is like the " Address without a Phcenix " among 



HIS USE OF AUTHORITIES. 387 

the Drury Lane mock poems. Can we find any 
trace of this idea elsewhere ? 

In a little poem o£ Coleridge's, " William 
Tell," are these two lines : 

" On wind and wave the boy would toss 
Was great, nor knew how great he was." 

The thought is fully worked out in the cele- 
brated Essay of Carlyle called " Characteris- 
tics." It reappears in Emerson's poem " Fate." 

" Unknown to Cromwell' as to me 
Was Cromwell's measure and degree ; 
Unknown to him as to his horse, 
If he than his groom is better or worse." 

It is unnecessary to illustrate this point any 
further in this connection. In dealing with his 
poetry other resemblances will suggest them- 
selves. All the best poetry the world has 
known is full of such resemblances. If we find 
Emerson's wonderful picture, " Initial Love " 
prefigured in the "Symposium" of Plato, we 
have only to look in the " Phsedrus " and we 
we shall find an earlier sketch of Shakespeare's 
famous group, — 

" The lunatic, the lover, and the poet." 

Sometimes these resemblances are nothing" more 
than accidental coincidences ; sometimes the sim- 
ilar passages are unconsciously borrowed from 
another ; sometimes they are paraphrases, varia- 



388 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

tions, embellished copies, editions de luxe of 
sayings that all the world knows are old, but 
which it seems to the writer worth his while to 
say over again. The more improved versions of 
the world's great thoughts we have, the better, 
and we look to the great minds for them. The 
larger the river the more streams flow into it. 
The wide flood of Emerson's discourse has a 
hundred rivers and thousands of streamlets for 
its tributaries. 

/it was not from books only that he gathered 
food for thought and for his lectures and essays. 
He was always on the lookout in conversation 
for things to be remembered./ He picked up 
facts one would not have expected him to care 
for. He once corrected me in giving Flora 
Temple's time at Kalamazoo. I made a mistake 
of a quarter of a second, and he set me right. 
He was not always so exact in his memory, as 
I have already shown in several instances. An- 
other example is where he speaks of Quintus 
Curtius,the historian, when he is thinking of Met- 
tus Curtius, the self-sacrificing equestrian. Lit- 
tle inaccuracies of this kind did not concern 
him much ; he was a wholesale dealer in illus- 
trations, and could not trouble himself about a 
trifling defect in this or that particular article. 

Emerson was a man who influenced others 
more than others influenced him. Outside of 



INFLUENCE OF OTHERS UPON HIM. 389 

his family connections, the personalities which 
can be most easily traced in his own are those - 
of Carlyle, Mr. Alcott, and Thorean. Carlyle's 
harsh virility could not be without its effect on 
his valid, but sensitive nature. Alcott's psycho- 
logical and physiological speculations interested 
him as an idealist. Thoreau lent him a new set 
of organs of sense of wonderful delicacy. Em- 
erson looked at nature as a poet, and his natural 
history, if left to himself, would have been as 
vague as that of Polonius. But Thoreau had 
a pair of eyes which, like those of the Indian 
deity, could see the smallest emmet on the black- v 
est stone in the darkest night, — or come nearer 
to seeing it than those of most mortals. Emer-' 
son's long intimacy with hira taught him to give 
an outline to many natural objects which would 
have been poetic nebulas to him but for this com- 
panionship. A nicer analysis would detect many 
alien elements mixed with his individuality, but 
the family traits predominated over all the ex- 
ternal influences, and the personality stood out 
distinct from the common family qualities. Mr. 
Whipple has well said : " Some traits of his 
mind and character may be traced back to his 
ancestors, but what doctrine of heredity can give 
us the genesis of his genius ? Indeed the safest 
course to pursue is to quote his own words, and 
despairingly confess that it is the nature of gen- 



390 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

ius ' to spring, like the rainbow daughter o£ 
Wonder, from the invisible, to abolish the past 
and refuse all history.' " 



/ 



Emerson's place as a thinker is somewhat dif- 
ficult to fix. He cannot properly be called a 
psychologist. He made notes and even deliv- 
ered lectures on the natural history of the in- 
tellect; but they seem to have been made up, 
according to his own statement, of hints and 
fragments rather than of the results of system- 
atic study. He was a man of intuition, of in- 
sight, a seer, a poet, with a tendency to mysti- 
cism. This tendency renders him sometimes 
obscure, and once in a while almost, if not quite, 
unintelligible. / We can, for this reason, under- 
stand why the great lawyer turned him over to 
his daughters, and Dr. Walter Channing com- 
plained that his lecture made his head ache. 
But it is not always a writer's fault that he is 
not understood. Many persons have poor heads 
for abstractions ; and as for mystics, if they 
understand themselves it is quite as much as can 
be expected. But that which is mysticism to a 
dull listener may be the highest and most inspir- 
ing imaginative clairvoyance to a brighter one. 
It is to be hoped that no reader will take offence 
at the following anecdote, which may be found 
under the title " Diogenes," in the work of his 



HIS PLACE AS A THINKER. 391 

namesake, Diogenes Laertius. I translate from 
the Latin version. 

" Plato was talking about ideas, and spoke of 
mensality and cyathity [tableity, and gobletity]. 
6 1 can see a table and a goblet,' said the cynic, 
6 but I can see no such things as tableity and 
gobletity.' ' Quite so,' answered Plato, ' because 
you have the eyes to see a goblet and a table 
with, but you have not the brains to understand 
tableity and gobletity.' " 

This anecdote may be profitably borne in 
mind in following Emerson into the spheres of 
intuition and mystical contemplation. 
< Emerson was an idealist in the Platonic sense 
of the word, a spiritualist as opposed to a mate- 
rialist. He believes, he says, " as the wise 
Spenser teaches," that the soul makes its own 
body. This, of course, involves the doctrine of 
preexistence ; a doctrine older than Spenser, 
older than Plato or Pythagoras, having its cra- 
dle in India, fighting its way down through 
Greek philosophers and Christian fathers and 
German professors, to our own time, when it 
has found Pierre Leroux, Edward Beecher, and 
Brigham Young among its numerous advocates. 
Each has his fancies on the subject. The geog- 
raphy of an undiscovered country and the sound- 
ings of an ocean* that has never been sailed over 
may belong to romance and poetry, but they do 
not belong to the realm of knowledge. / 

/ 



392 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

That the organ of the mind brings with it in- 
herited aptitudes is a simple matter of observa- 
tion. That it inherits truths is a different prop- 
osition. The eye does not bring landscapes into 
the world on its retina, — why should the brain 
bring thoughts? Poetry settles such questions 
very simply by saying it is so. 
/ The poet in Emerson never accurately differ- 
, entiated itself from the philosopher. He speaks 
of Wordsworth's Ode on the Intimations of Im- 
mortality as the high-water mark of the poetry 
of this century. It sometimes seems as if he 
had accepted the lofty rhapsodies of this noble 
Ode as working truths./ 

" Not in entire forgetfulness, 
And not in utter nakedness, 
But trailing clouds of glory do we come 
From God, who is our home." 

In accordance with this statement of a divine 
inheritance from a preexisting state, the poet 
addresses the infant : — 

" Mighty prophet ! Seer blest ! 
On whom those truths do rest 
Which we are toiling all our lives to find." — 

These are beautiful fancies, but the philoso- 
pher will naturally ask the poet what are the 
truths which the child has lost between its cradle 
and the age of eight years, at which Words- 
worth finds the little girl of whom he speaks in 
the lines, — 



HIS PLACE AS A THINKER. 393 

" A simple child — 
That lightly draws its breath 
And feels its life in every limb, — 
What should it know of death ? " 

What should it, sure enough, or of any other of 
those great truths which Time with its lessons, 
and the hardening of the pulpy brain can alone 
render appreciable to the consciousness ? Un- 
doubtedly every brain has its own set of moulds 
ready to shape all material of thought into its 
own individual set of patterns. If the mind 
comes into consciousness with a good set of 
moulds derived by "traduction," as Ben Jon- 
son called it, from a good ancestry, it may be 
all very well to give the counsel to the youth 
to plant himself on his instincts. But the in- 
dividual to whom this counsel is given prob- 
ably has dangerous as well as wholesome in- 
stincts. He has also a great deal besides the 
instincts to be considered. His instincts are 
mixed up with innumerable acquired prejudices, 
erroneous conclusions, deceptive experiences, par- 
tial truths, one-sided tendencies. The clearest 
insight will often find it hard to decide what is 
the real instinct, and whether the instinct itself 
is, in theological language, from God or the devil. 
That which was a safe guide for Emerson might 
not work well with Lacenaire or Jesse Pomeroy. 
The cloud of glory which the babe brings with 



394 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

it into the world is a good set of instincts, which 
dispose it to accept moral and intellectual truths, 
— not the truths themselves. And too many 
children come into life trailing after them clouds 
which are anything but clouds of glory. 

It may well be imagined that when Emerson 
proclaimed the new doctrine, — new to his young 
disciples, — of planting themselves on their in- 
stincts, consulting their own spiritual light for 
guidance, — trusting to intuition, — without ref- 
erence to any other authority, he opened the 
door to extravagances in any unbalanced minds, 
if such there were, which listened to his teach- 
ings. Too much was expected out of the mouths 
of babes and sucklings. The children shut up 
by Psammetichus got as far as one word in their 
evolution of an original language, but heJckos 
was a very small contribution towards a com- 
plete vocabulary. " The Dial " was well charged 
with intuitions, but there was too much vague- 
ness, incoherence, aspiration without energy, ef- 
fort without inspiration, to satisfy those who 
were looking for a new revelation. 

The gospel of intuition proved to be practi- 
cally nothing more or less than this : a new 
manifesto of intellectual and spiritual indepen- 
dence. It was no great discovery that we see 
many things as truths which we cannot prove. 
But it was a great impulse to thought, a great 



EFFECTS OF HIS TEACHINGS. 895 

advance in the attitude of our thinking commu- 
nity, when the profoundly devout religious free- 
thinker took the ground of the undevout and 
irreligious free-thinker, and calmly asserted and 
peaceably established the right and the duty of 
the individual to weigh the universe, its laws 
and its legends, in his own balance, without fear 
of authority, or names, or institutions. 

All this brought its dangers with it, like other 
movements of emancipation. For the Fay ce 
que voudras of the revellers of Medmenham 
Abbey, was substituted the new motto, Pense ce 
que voudras. There was an intoxication in this 
newly proclaimed evangel which took hold of 
some susceptible natures and betrayed itself in 
prose and rhyme, occasionally of the Bedlam 
sort. Emerson's disciples were never accused 
of falling into the more perilous snares of anti- 
nomianism, but he himself distinctly recognizes 
the danger of it, and the counterbalancing effect 
of household life, with its curtain lectures and 
other benign influences. Extravagances of opin- 
ion cure themselves. Time wore off the effects 
of the harmless debauch, and restored the giddy 
revellers to the regimen of sober thought, as re- 
formed spiritual inebriates. 

Such were some of the incidental effects of 
the Emersonian declaration of independence. 



396 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

It was followed by a revolutionary war of opin- 
ion not yet ended or at present like to be. A 
local outbreak, if you will, but so was throwing 
the tea overboard. A provincial affair, if the 
Bohemian press likes that term better, but so 
was the skirmish where the gun was fired the 
echo of which is heard in every battle for free- 
dom all over the world. 

Too much has been made of Emerson's mys- 
ticism. He was an intellectual rather than an 
emotional mystic, and withal a cautious one. 
He never let go the string of his balloon. He 
never threw over all his ballast of common sense 
so as to rise above an atmosphere in which a 
rational being could breathe. I found in his 
library William Law's edition of Jacob Behmen. 
There were all those wonderful diagrams over 
which the reader may have grown dizzy, — just 
such as one finds on the walls of lunatic asy- 
lums, — evidences to all sane minds of cerebral 
strabismus in the contrivers of them. Emerson 
liked to lose himself for a little while in the 
vagaries of this class of minds, the dangerous 
proximity of which to insanity he knew and has 
spoken of. He played with the incommunicable, 
the inconceivable, the absolute, the antinomies, 
as he would have played with a bundle of jack- 
straws. " Brahma," the poem which so mysti- 



HIS MYSTICISM. 397 

fied the readers of the " Atlantic Monthly," was 
one of his spiritual divertisements. To the aver- 
age Western mind it is the nearest approach to 
a Torricellian vacuum of intelligibility that lan- 
guage can pump out of itself. If " Rejected 
Addresses " had not been written half a century 
before Emerson's poem, one would think these 
lines were certainly meant to ridicule and par- 
ody it. 

"The song of Braham is an Irish howl; 
Thinking is but an idle waste of thought, 
And nought is everything and everything is nought." 

Braham, Hazlitt might have said, is so obviously 
the anagram of Brahma that dulness itself could 
not mistake the object intended. 

Of course no one can hold Emerson respon- 
sible for the " Yoga " doctrine of Brahmanism, 
which he has amused himself with putting in 
verse. The oriental side of Emerson's nature 
delighted itself in these narcotic dreams, born 
in the land of the poppy and of hashish. They 
lend a peculiar charm to his poems, but it is not 
worth while to try to construct a philosophy out 
of them. The knowledge, if knowledge it be, 
of the mystic is not transmissible. It is not 
cumulative ; it begins and ends with the solitary 
dreamer, and the next who follows him has to 
build his own cloud-castle as if it were the first 
aerial edifice that a human soul had ever con- 
structed. 



398 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

Some passages of "Nature," "The Over-Soul," 
" The Sphinx," " Uriel," illustrate sufficiently 
this mood of spiritual exaltation. Emerson's 
calm temperament never allowed it to reach 
the condition he sometimes refers to, — that of 
ecstasy. The passage in " Nature " where he says 
" I become a transparent eyeball " is about as 
near it as he ever came. This was almost too 
much for some of his admirers and worshippers. 
One of his most ardent and faithful followers, 
whose gifts as an artist are well known, mounted 
the eyeball on legs, and with its cornea in front 
for a countenance and its optic nerve project- 
ing behind as a queue, the spiritual cyclops was 
shown setting forth on his travels. 

Emerson's reflections in the " transcendental " 
mood do beyond question sometimes irresistibly 
suggest the close neighborhood of the sublime 
to the ridiculous. But very near that precipitous 
border line there is a charmed region where, if 
the statelier growths of philosophy die out and 
disappear, the flowers of poetry next the very 
edge of the chasm have a peculiar and mysteri- 
ous beauty. " Uriel " is a poem which finds 
itself perilously near to the gulf of unsounded 
obscurity, and has, I doubt not, provoked the 
mirth of profane readers ; but read in a lucid 
moment, it is just obscure enough and just sig- 
nificant enough to give the voltaic thrill which 



HIS 31 Y STIC ISM. 399 

comes from the sudden contacts of the highest 
imaginative conceptions. 

Human personality presented itself to Emer- 
son as a passing phase of universal being. Born 
of the Infinite, to the Infinite it was to return. 
Sometimes he treats his own personality as inter- 
changeable with objects in nature, — he would 
put it off like a garment and clothe himself in 
the landscape. Here is a curious extract from 
" The Adirondacs," in which the reader need not 
stop to notice the parallelism with Byron's — 

" The sky is changed, — and what a change ! O night 
And storm and darkness, ye are wondrous strong." — 

Now Emerson : — 

" And presently the sky is changed ; O world I 
What pictures and what harmonies are thine ! 
The clouds are rich and dark, the air serene, 
So like the soul of me, what if H were me ? " 

We find this idea of confused personal identity 
also in a brief poem printed among the " Trans- 
lations " in the Appendix to Emerson's Poems. 
These are the two last lines of " The Flute, from 
Hilali": — 

" Saying, Sweetheart ! the old mystery remains, 
If I am I ; thou, thou, or thou art I ? " 

The same transfer of personality is hinted in 

the line of Shelley's " Ode to the West Wind " : 

" Be thou, Spirit fierce, 
My spirit ! Be thou me, impetuous one ! " 



400 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

Once more, how fearfully near the abyss of the 
ridiculous !. A few drops of alcohol bring about 
a confusion of mind not unlike this poetical 
metempsychosis. 

The laird of Balnamoon had been at a dinner 
where they gave him cherry-brandy instead of 
port wine. In driving home over a wild tract 
of land called Munrimmon Moor his hat and 
wig blew off, and his servant got out of the gig 
and brought them to him. The hat he recog- 
nized, but not the wig. " It 's no my wig, Hairy 
[Harry], lad; it's no my wig," and he would 
not touch it. At last Harry lost his patience : 
" Ye 'd better tak' it, sir, for there 's nae waile 
[choice] o' wigs on Munrimmon Moor." And 
in our earlier days we used to read of the be- 
wildered market-woman, whose Ego was so ob- 
scured when she awoke from her slumbers that 
she had to leave the question of her personal 
identity to the instinct of her four-footed com- 
panion : — 

"If it be I, he '11 wag his little tail ; 
And if it be not I, he '11 loudly bark and wail." 

I have not lost my reverence for Emerson in 
showing one of his fancies for a moment in the 
distorting mirror of the ridiculous. He would 
doubtless have smiled with me at the reflection, 
for he had a keen sense of humor. But I take 
the opportunity to disclaim a jesting remark 



HIS ATTITUDE RESPECTING SCIENCE. 401 

about " a foresmell of the Infinite " wliicli Mr. 
Conway has attributed to me, who a"ni innocent 
of all connection with it. 

The mystic appeals only to those who have an 
ear for the celestial concords, as the musician 
only appeals to those who have the special en- 
dowment which enables them to understand his 
compositions. It is not for organizations un- 
tuned to earthly music to criticise the great 
composers, or for those who are deaf to spiritual 
harmonies to criticise the higher natures which VS. \ 
lose themselves in the strains of divine contem- 
plation. The bewildered reader must not forget 
that passage of arms, previously mentioned, be- 
tween Plato and Diogenes. 

Emerson looked rather askance at Science in 
his early days. I remember that his brother 
Charles had something to say in the " Harvard 
Register " (1828) about its disenchantments. 
I suspect the prejudice may have come partly 
from Wordsworth. Compare this verse of his 
with the lines of Emerson's which follow it. 

" Physician art thou, one all eyes ; 
Philosopher, a fingering slave, 
One that would peep and botanize 
Upon his mother's grave ? " 

Emerson's lines are to be found near the end 
of the Appendix in the new edition of his works. 

26 



402 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

" Philosophers are lined with eyes within, 
And^ being so, the sage unmakes the man. 
In love he cannot therefore cease his trade ; 
Scarce the first blush has overspread his cheek, 
He feels it, introverts his learned eye 
To catch the unconscious heart in the very act. 
His mother died, — the only friend he had, — » 

Some tears escaped, but his philosophy 
Couched like a cat, sat watching close behind 
And throttled all his passion. Is 't not like 
That devil-spider that devours her mate 
Scarce freed from her embraces ? " 

The same feeling comes out in the Poem 
"Blight," where he says the "young scholars 
who invade our hills " 

" Love not the flower they pluck, and know it not> 
And all their botany is Latin names ; ?s> 

and in " The Walk," where the " learned men " 
with their glasses are contrasted with the sons 
of Nature, — the poets are no doubt meant, — ■ 
much to the disadvantage of the microscopic 
observers. Emerson's mind was very far from 
being of the scientific pattern. Science is quan- 
titative, — loves the foot-rule and the balance, 
— methodical, exhaustive, indifferent to the beau- 
tiful as such. The poet is curious, asks all man- 
ner of questions, and never tkinks of waiting for 
the answer, still less of torturing Nature to get 
at it. Emerson wonders, for instance, — - 

" Why Nature loves the number five," 



HIS STYLE. 403 

but leaves his note of interrogation without 
troubling himself any farther. He must have 
picked up some wood-craft and a little botany 
from Thoreau, and a few chemical notions from 
his brother-in-law, Dr. Jackson, whose name is 
associated with the discovery of artificial anaes- 
thesia. It seems probable that the genial com- 
panionship of Agassiz, who united with his scien- 
tific genius, learning, and renown, most delightful 
social qualities, gave him a kinder feeling to men 
of science and their pursuits than he had enter- 
tained before that great master came among us. 
At any rate he avails himself of the facts drawn 
from their specialties without scruple when they 
will serve his turn. But he loves the poet al- 
ways better than the scientific student of nature. 
In his Preface to the Poems of Mr. W. E. Chan- 
ning, he says : — 

" Here is a naturalist who sees the flower and 
the bud with a poet's curiosity and awe, and 
does not count the stamens in the aster, nor the 
feathers in the wood-thrush, but rests in the sur- 
prise and affection they awake." — 

This was Emerson's own instinctive attitude 
to all the phenomena of nature. 

Emerson's style is epigrammatic, incisive, au- 
thoritative, sometimes quaint, never obscure, ex- 
cept when he is handling nebulous subjects. 



404 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

His paragraphs are full of brittle sentences that 
break apart and are independent units, like the 
fragments of a coral colony. His imagery is 
frequently daring, leaping from the concrete to 
the abstract, from the special to the general and 
universal, and vice versa, with a bound that is 
like a flight. Here are a few specimens of his 
pleasing audacities : — 

" There is plenty of wild azote and carbon un- 
appropriated, but it is naught till we have made 
it up into loaves and soup." — 

" He arrives at the sea-shore and a sumptuous 
ship has floored and carpeted for him the stormy 
Atlantic." — 

" If we weave a yard of tape in all humility 
and as well as we can, long hereafter we shall 
see it was no cotton tape at all but some galaxy 
which we braided, and that the threads were 
Time and Nature." — 

"Tapping the tempest for a little side 
wind." — 

"The locomotive and the steamboat, like 
enormous shuttles, shoot every day across the 
thousand various threads of national descent 
and employment and bind them fast in one 
web." — 

He is fond of certain archaisms and unusual 
phrases. He likes the expression " mother-wit," 
which he finds in Spenser, Marlowe, Shake- 



HIS STYLE. 405 

speare, and other old writers. He often uses 
the word " husband " in its earlier sense of econ- 
omist. His use of the word " haughty " is so 
fitting, and it sounds so nobly from his lips, that 
we could wish its employment were forbidden 
henceforth to voices which vulgarize it. But his 
special, constitutional, word is " fine," meaning 
something like dainty, as Shakespeare uses it, — 
" my dainty Ariel," — " fine Ariel. " It belongs 
to his habit of mind and body as " faint " and 
" swoon " belong to Keats. This word is one of 
the ear-marks by which Emerson's imitators are 
easily recognized. " Melioration " is another fa- 
vorite word of Emerson's. A clairvoyant could 
spell out some of his most characteristic traits 
by the aid of his use of these three words ; his 
inborn fastidiousness, subdued and kept out of 
sight by his large charity and his good breed- 
ing, showed itself in his liking for the word 
" haughty ; " his exquisite delicacy by his fond- 
ness for the word " fine," with a certain shade 
of meaning ; his optimism in the frequent recur- 
rence of the word "melioration." 

We must not find fault with his semi-detached 
sentences until we quarrel with Solomon and 
criticise the Sermon on the Mount. The " point 
and surprise " which he speaks of as character- 
izing the style of Plutarch belong eminently to 
his own. His fertility of illustrative imagery is 



406 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

very great. His images are noble, or, if bor- 
rowed from humble objects, ennobled by his 
handling. He throws his royal robe over a 
milking - stool and it becomes a throne. But 
chiefly he chooses objects of comparison grand 
in themselves. He deals with the elements at 
first hand. Such delicacy of treatment, with 
such breadth and force of effect, is hard to 
match anywhere, and we know him by his style 
at sight. It is as when the slight fingers of a 
girl touch the keys of some mighty and many- 
voiced organ, and send its thunders rolling along 
the aisles and startling the stained windows of a 
great cathedral. We have seen him as an un- 
pretending lecturer. We follow him round as 
he " peddles out all the wit he can gather from 
Time or from Nature," and we find that "he has 
changed his market cart into a chariot of the 
sun," and is carrying about the morning light as 
merchandise. 

Emerson was as loyal an American, as thor- 
ough a New Englander, as home-loving a citizen, 
as ever lived. He arraigned his countrymen 
sharply for their faults. Mr. Arnold made one 
string of his epithets familiar to all of us, — 
" This great, intelligent, sensual, and avaricious 
America." This was from a private letter to 
Carlyle. In his Essay, " Works and Days," he 



AS AN AMERICAN. 407 

is quite as outspoken : " This mendicant America, 
this curious, peering, itinerant, imitative Amer- 
ica." " I see plainly," he says, " that our society 
is as bigoted to the respectabilities of religion 
and education as yours." " The war," he says, 
" gave back integrity to this erring and immoral 
nation." All his life long he recognized the 
faults and errors of the new civilization. All 
his life long he labored diligently and lovingly 
to correct them. To the dark prophecies of 
Carlyle, which came wailing to him across the 
ocean, he answered with ever hopeful and 
cheerful anticipations. "Here," he said, in 
words I have already borrowed, "is the home 
of man — here is the promise of a new and 
more excellent social state than history has re- 
corded." 

Such a man as Emerson belongs to no one 
town or province or continent ; he is the common 
property of mankind; and yet we love to think 
of him as breathing the same air and treading 
the same soil that we and our fathers and our 
children have breathed and trodden. So it 
pleases us to think how fondly he remembered 
his birthplace ; and by the side of Franklin's 
bequest to his native city we treasure that golden 
verse of Emerson's : — 

" A blessing through the ages thus 
Shield all thy roofs and towers. 



408 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

God with the Fathers, so with us, 
Thou darling town of ours ! " 

Emerson sympathized with all generous public 
movements, hut he was not fond of working in 
associations, though he liked well enough to at- 
tend their meetings as a listener and looker-on. 
His study was his workshop, and he preferred to 
labor in solitude. When he became famous he 
paid the penalty of celebrity in frequent inter- 
ruptions by those " devastators of the day " who 
sought him in his quiet retreat. His courtesy 
and kindness to his visitors was uniform and re- 
markable. Poets who come to recite their verses 
and reformers who come to explain their projects 
are among the most formidable of earthly visi- 
tations. Emerson accepted his martyrdom with 
meek submission ; it was a martyrdom in detail, 
but collectively its petty tortures might have 
satisfied a reasonable inquisitor as the punish- 
ment of a moderate heresy. Except in that 
one phrase above quoted he never complained 
of his social oppressors, so far as I remember, 
in his writings. His perfect amiability was one 
of his most striking characteristics, and in a na- 
ture fastidious as was his in its whole organiza- 
tion, it implied a self-command worthy of ad- 
miration. 

The natural purity and elevation of Emer- 



EMERSON AND BURNS. 409 

son's character show themselves in all that he 
writes. His life corresponded to the ideal we 
form of him from his writings. This it was 
which made him invulnerable amidst all the 
fierce conflicts his gentle words excited. His ^ 
white shield was so spotless that the least scru- 
pulous combatants did not like to leave their de- 
facing marks upon it. One would think he was 
protected by some superstition like that which 
Voltaire refers to as existing about Boileau, — 

" Ne (iisons pas mal de Nicolas, — cela porte malheur." 

(Don't let us abuse Nicolas, — it brings ill luck.) 
The cooped-up dogmatists whose very citadel of 
belief he was attacking, and who had their 
hot water and boiling pitch and flaming brim- 
stone ready for the assailants of their outer de- 
fences, withheld their missiles from him, and even 
sometimes, in a movement of involuntary human 
sympathy, sprinkled him with rose-water. His 
position in our Puritan New England was in 
some respects like that of Burns in Presbyterian 
Scotland. The dour Scotch ministers and elders 
could not cage their minstrel, and they could not 
clip his wings ; and so they let this morning lark 
rise above their theological mists, and sing to 
them at heaven's gate, until he had softened all 
their hearts and might nestle in their bosoms 
and find his perch on " the big ha' bible," if he 



410 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

would, — -and as lie did. So did the music of 
Emerson's words and life steal into the hearts 
of our stern New England theologians, and soften 
them to a temper which would have seemed trea- 
sonable weakness to their stiff-kneed forefathers. 
When a man lives a life commended by all the 
Christian virtues, enlightened persons are not so 
apt to cavil at his particular beliefs or unbeliefs 
as in former generations. We do, however, wish 
to know what are the convictions of any such 
persons in matters of highest interest about 
which there is so much honest difference of 
opinion in this age of deep and anxious and de- 
vout religious scepticism. 

It was a very wise and a very prudent course 
which was taken by Simonides, when he was 
asked by his imperial master to give him his 
ideas about the Deity. He begged for a day to 
consider the question, but when the time came 
for his answer he wanted two days more, and at 
the end of these, four days. In short, the more 
he thought about it, the more he found himself 
perplexed. 

The name most frequently applied to Emer- 
son's form of belief is Pantheism. How many 
persons who shudder at the sound of this word 
can tell the difference between that doctrine and 
their own professed belief in the omnipresence 
of the Deity ? 



HIS RELIGIOUS BELIEF. 411 

Theodore Parker explained Emerson's posi- 
tion, as lie understood it, in an article in the 
" Massachusetts Quarterly Review." I borrow 
this quotation from Mr. Cooke : — 

" He has an absolute confidence in God. He 
has been foolishly accused of Pantheism, which 
sinks God in nature, but no man is further from 
it. He never sinks God in man ; he does not 
stop with the law, in matter or morals, but goes 
to the Law-giver ; yet probably it would not be 
so easy for him to give his definition of God, as 
it would be for most graduates at Andover or 
Cambridge." 

We read in his Essay, " Self -Reliance " : "This 
is the ultimate fact which we so quickly reach on 
this, as on every topic, the resolution of all into 
the ever-blessed One. Self-existence is the at- 
tribute of the Supreme Cause, and it constitutes 
the measure of good by the degree in which it 
enters into all lower forms." 

The " ever-blessed One " of Emerson corre- 
sponds to the Father in the doctrine of the 
Trinity. The " Over-Soul " of Emerson is that 
aspect of Deity which is known to theology as 
the Holy Spirit. Jesus was for him a divine 
manifestation, but only as other great human 
souls have been in all ages and are to-day » He 
was willing to be called a Christian just as he 
was willing to be called a Platonist. 



/: 



412 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

Explanations are apt not to explain much in 
dealing with subjects like this. " Canst thou 
by searching find out God ? Canst thou find out 
the Almighty unto perfection? " But on certain 
great points nothing could be clearer than the 
teaching' of Emerson. He believed in the doc- 
trine of spiritual influx as sincerely as any Cal- 
vinist or Swedenborgian. His views as to fate, 
or the determining conditions of the character, 
brought him near enough to the doctrine of 
predestination to make him afraid of its con- 
sequences, and led him to enter a caveat against 
any denial of the self-governing power of the 
will. 

His creed was a brief one, but he carried it 
everywhere with him. In all he did, in all he 
said, and so far as all outward signs could show, 
in all his thoughts, the indwelling Spirit was his 
light and guide ; through all nature he looked 
up to nature's God ; and if he did not worship 
the " man Christ Jesus " as the churches of 
Christendom have done, he followed his foot- 
steps so nearly that our good Methodist, Father 
Taylor, spoke of him as more like Christ than 
any man he had known. 

Emerson was in friendly relations with many 
clergymen of the church from which he had 
parted. Since he left the pulpit, the lesson, not 
of tolerance, for that word is an insult as ap- 



HIS RELATIONS WITH CLERGYMEN. 413 

plied by one set of well-behaved people to an- 
other, not of charity, for that implies an im- 
pertinent assumption, but of good feeling on the 
part of divergent sects and their ministers has 
been taught and learned as never before. Their 
official Confessions of Faith make far less differ- 
ence in their human sentiments and relations 
than they did even half a century ago. These/' 
ancient creeds are handed along down, to be 
kept in their phials with their stoppers fast, as 
attar of rose is kept in its little bottles ; they 
are not to be opened and exposed to the atmos- 
phere so long as their perfume, — the odor of 
sanctity, — is diffused from the carefully treas- 
ured receptacles, — perhaps even longer than 
that. 

Out of the endless opinions as to the signifi- 
cance and final outcome of Emerson's religious 
teachings I will select two as typical. 

Dr. William Hague, long the honored min- 
ister of a Baptist church in Boston, where I had 
the pleasure of friendly acquaintance with him, 
has written a thoughtful, amiable paper on Em- 
erson, which he read before the New York Gene- 
alogical and Biographical Society. This Essay 
closes with the following sentence : — 

" Thus, to-day, while musing, as at the begin- 
ning, over the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 
we recognize now as ever his imperial genius as 



414 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

one of the greatest of writers ; at the same time, 
his life work, as a whole, tested by its supreme 
ideal, its method and its fruitage, shows also a 
great waste of power, verifying the saying of 
Jesus touching the harvest of human life : fc He 

THAT GATHERETH WOT WITH ME SCATTERETH j 
ABROAD.' " j 

" But when Dean Stanley returned from 
America, it was to report," says Mr. Conway 
" (' Macmillan,' June, 1879), that religion had 
there passed through an evolution from Edwards 
to Emerson, and that 'the genial atmosphere 
which Emerson has done so much to promote is 
shared by all the churches equally.' ' 

What is this "genial atmosphere" but the 
very spirit of Christianity? The good Baptist 
minister's Essay is full of it. He comes asking 
what has become of Emerson's " wasted power " 
and lamenting his lack of "fruitage," and lo ! 
he himself has so ripened and mellowed in that 
same Emersonian air that the tree to which he 
belongs would hardly know him. The close- 
communion clergyman handles the arch-heretic 
as tenderly as if he were the nursing mother of 
a new infant Messiah. A few generations ago 
this preacher of a new gospel would have been 
burned; a little later he would been tried and im- 
prisoned ; less than fifty years ago he was called 
infidel and atheist ; names which are fast becom- 



HIS RELATIONS WITH CLERGYMEN. 415 

ing relinquished to the intellectual half-breeds 
who sometimes find their way into pulpits and 
the so-called religious periodicals. 

It is not within our best-fenced churches and 
creeds that the self-governing American is like 
to find the religious freedom which the Concord 
prophet asserted with the strength of Luther 
and the sweetness of Melancthon, and which the 
sovereign in his shirt-sleeves will surely claim. 
Milton was only the precursor of Emerson when 
he wrote : — 

"Neither is God appointed and confined, where 
and out of what place these his chosen shall be 
first heard to speak ; for he sees not as man sees, 
chooses not as man chooses, lest we should devote 
ourselves again to set places and assemblies, and 
outward callings of men, planting our faith one 
while in the old convocation house, and another 
while in the Chapel at Westminster, when all 
the faith and religion that shall be there canon- 
ized is not sufficient without plain convincement, 
and the charity of patient instruction, to supple 
the least bruise of conscience, to edify the mean- 
est Christian who desires to walk in the spirit 
and not in the letter of human trust, for all the 
number of voices that can be there made; no, 
though Harry the Seventh himself there, with 
all his liege tombs about him, should lend their 
voices from the dead, to swell their number." 



416 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

The best evidence of the effect produced by 
Emerson's writings and life is to be found in the 
attention he has received from biographers and 
critics. The ground upon which I have ventured 
was already occupied by three considerable 
Memoirs. Mr. George Willis Cooke's elaborate 
work is remarkable for its careful and thorough 
analysis of Emerson's teachings. Mr. Moncure 
Daniel Conway's " Emerson at Home and 
Abroad " is a lively picture of its subject by one 
long and well acquainted with him. Mr. Alex- 
ander Ireland's " Biographical Sketch " brings 
together, from a great variety of sources, as well 
as from his own recollections, the facts of Em- 
erson's history and the comments of those whose 
opinions were best worth reproducing. I must 
refer to this volume for a bibliography of the 
various works and Essays of which Emerson 
furnished the subject. 

From the days when Mr. Whipple attracted 
the attention of our intelligent, but unawakened 
reading community, by his discriminating and 
appreciative criticisms of Emerson's Lectures, 
and^Mr. Lowell drew the portrait of the New 
England " Plotinus-Montaigne " in his brilliant 
" Fable for Critics," to the recent essays of Mr. 
Matthew Arnold, Mr. John Morley, Mr. Henry 
Norman, and Mr. Edmund Clarence Stedman, 
Emerson's writings have furnished one of the 



EMERSON AS JUDGED BY HIS TOWNSMEN. 417 

most enduring pieces de resistance at the critical 
tables of the old and the new world. 

He early won the admiration of distinguished 
European thinkers and writers : Carlyle accepted 
his friendship and his disinterested services ; 
Miss Martineau fully recognized his genius and 
sounded his praises ; Miss Bremer fixed her 
sharp eyes on him and pronounced him " a noble 
man." Professor Tyndall found the inspiration 
of his life in Emerson's fresh thought ; and Mr. 
Arnold, who clipped his medals reverently but 
unsparingly, confessed them to be of pure gold, 
even while he questioned whether they would 
pass current with posterity. He found discern- 
ing critics in France, Germany, and Holland. 
Better than all is the testimony of those who 
knew him best. They who repeat the saying 
that " a prophet is not without honor save in his 
own country," will find an exception to its truth 
in the case of Emerson. Read the impressive 
words spoken at his funeral by his fellow-towns- 
man, Judge Hoar ; read the glowing tributes of 
three of Concord's poets, — Mr. Alcott, Mr. 
Channing, and Mr. Sanborn, — and it will ap- 
pear plainly enough that he, whose fame had 
gone out into all the earth, was most of all 
believed in, honored, beloved, lamented, in the 
little village circle that centred about his own 
fireside. 

27 



/" 



418 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

It is a not uninteresting question whether 
Emerson has bequeathed to the language any 
essay or poem which will resist the flow of time 
like " the adamant of Shakespeare," and remain 
a classic like the Essays of Addison or Gray's 
Elegy. It is a far more important question 
whether his thought entered into the spirit of 
his day and generation, so that it modified the 
higher intellectual, mora], and religious life of 
his time, and, as a necessary consequence, those 
of succeeding ages. Corpora non agunt nisi 
soluta, and ideas must be dissolved and taken 
up as well as material substances before they can 
act. " That which thou so west is not quickened 
except it die," or rather lose the form with which 
it was sown. Eight stanzas of four lines each 
have made the author of " The Burial of Sir 
John Moore " an immortal, and endowed the 
language with a classic, perfect as the most fin- 
ished cameo. But what is the gift of a mourn- 
ing ring to the bequest of a perpetual annuity ? 
How many lives have melted into the history of 
their time, as the gold was lost in Corinthian 
brass, leaving no separate monumental trace of 
their influence, but adding weight and color and 
worth to the age of which they formed a part 
and the generations that came after them! We 
can dare to predict of Emerson, in the words of 
his old friend and disciple, Mr. Cranch : — 



EMERSON AS JUDGED BY HIS LIFE. 419 

" The wise will know thee and the good will love, 
The age to come will feel thy impress given 
In all that lifts the race a step above 

Itself, and stamps it with the seal of heaven." 

It seems to us, to-day, that Emerson's best liter- 
ary work in prose and verse must live as long 
as the language lasts; but whether it live or fade 
from memory, the influence of his great and 
noble life and the spoken and written words 
which were its exponents, blends, indestructible, 
with tliQ enduring elements of civilization. 



i & 



V 



It is not irreverent, but eminently fitting, to 
compare any singularly pure and virtuous life 
with that of the great exemplar in whose foot- 
steps Christendom professes to follow. The time 
was when the divine authority of his gospel 
rested chiefly upon the miracles he is reported 
to have wrought. As the faith in these excep- 
tions to the general laws of the universe dimin- 
ished, the teachings of the Master, of whom it 
was said that he spoke as never man spoke, 
were more largely relied upon as evidence of his 
divine mission. Now, when a comparison of 
these teachings with those of other religious 
leaders is thought by many to have somewhat 
lessened the force of this argument, the life of 
the sinless and self-devoted servant of God and 
friend of man is appealed to as the last and con- 



420 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

vincing proof that lie was an immediate mani- 
festation of the Divinity. 

/Judged by his life Emerson comes very near 
P our best ideal of humanity. He was born too 
late for the trial of the cross or the stake, or 
even the jail. But the penalty of having an 
opinion of his own and expressing it was a seri- 
ous one, and he accepted it as cheerfully as any 
of Queen Mary's martyrs accepted his fiery 
baptism. His faith was too large and too deep 
for the formulae he found built into the pulpit, 
and he was too honest to cover up his doubts 
under the flowing vestments of a sacred calling. 
His writings, whether in prose or verse, are 
worthy of admiration, but his manhood was the 
underlying quality which gave them their true 
value. J It was in virtue of this that his rare 
genius acted on so many minds as a trumpet 
call to awaken them to the meaning and the 
privileges of this earthly existence with all its 
infinite promise. No matter of what he wrote 
or spoke, his words, his tones, his looks, carried 
the evidence of a sincerity which pervaded them 
all and was to his eloquence and poetry like the 
water of crystallization ; without which they 
would effloresce into mere rhetoric. \ He shaped 
an ideal for the commonest life, he proposed an 
object to the humblest seeker after truth. Look 
for beauty in the world around you, he said, and 



LIFE JUDGED BY THE IDEAL STANDARD. 421 

you shall see it everywhere. Look within, with 
pure eyes and simple trust, and you shall find 
the Deity mirrored in your own soul. Trust 
yourself because you trust the voice of God in 
your inmost consciousness. 

There are living orgauisms so transparent that 
we can see their hearts beating and their blood 
flowing through their glassy tissues. So trans- 
parent was the life of Emerson ; so clearly did 
the true nature of the man show through it. 
What he taught others to be, he was himself. 
His deep and sweet humanity won him love and 
reverence everywhere among those whose natures 
were capable of responding to the highest mani- 
festations of character. Here and there a nar- 
row-eyed sectary may have avoided or spoken ill 
of him ; but if He who knew what was in man 
had wandered from door to door in New England 
as of old in Palestine, we can well believe that 
one of the thresholds which " those blessed feet " 
would have crossed, to hallow and receive its 
welcome, would have been that of the lovely 
and quiet home of Emerson. 

/ 



INDEX. 



[For many references, not found elsewhere, see under the general 
headings of Emerson's Books, Essays, Poems. ] 



Abbott, Josiah Gardiner, a pupil of 
Emerson, 49, 50. 

Academic Races, 2, 3. (See Hered- 
ity.) 

Action, subordinate, 112. 

Adams, John, old age, 261. 

Adams, Samuel, Harvard debate, 
115. 

Addison, Joseph, classic, 416. 

Advertiser, The, Eruersoirs interest 
in, 348. 

iEolian Harp, his model, 329, 340. 
(See Emerson' 's Poems, — Harp. ) 

JEschylus, tragedies, 253. (See 
Greek.) 

Agassiz, Louis : Saturday Club, 222 ; 
companionship, 403. 

Agriculture : in Anthology, 30 ; at- 
tacked, 190 ; not Emerson's field, 
255, 256, 365. 

Akenside, Mark, allusion, 16. 

Alchemy, adepts, 260, 261. 

Alcott, A. Bronson : hearing Emer- 
son, 66 ; speculations, 86 ; an ideal- 
ist, 150 ; The Dial, 159 ; sonnet, 
355 ; quoted, 373 ; personality 
traceable, 389. 

Alcott, Louisa M., funeral bouquet, 
351. 

Alexander the Great : allusion, 184 ; 
mountain likeness, 322. 

Alfred the Great, 220, 306. 

Ailston, Washington, unfinished pic- 
ture, 334. (See Pictures.) 

Ambition, treated in Anthology, 30. 

America : room for a poet, 136, 137 ; 
virtues and defects, 143 ; faith in, 
179 ; people compared with Eng- 
lish, 216 ; things awry, 260 ; aris- 
tocracy, 296 ; in the Civil War, 304 ; 
Revolution, 305 ; Lincoln, the true 
history of his time, 307 ; passion 
for, 308, 309 ; artificial rhythm, 



329 ; its own literary style, 342 ; 
home of man, 371 ; loyalty to, 406 ; 
epithets, 406, 407. (See England, 
Neio England, etc.) 

Amici, meeting Emerson, 63. (See 
Italy. ) 

Amusements, in New England, 30. 

Anaemia, artistic, 334. 

Ancestry : in general, 1-3 ; Emer- 
son ; s, 3 et seq. (See Heredity.) 

Andover, Mass. : Theological School, 
48 ; graduates, 411. 

Andrew, John Albion : War Gov- 
ernor, 223 ; hearing Emerson, 379. 
(See South. ) 

Angelo. (See Michael Angelo.) 

Antinomianism : in The Dial, 162 ; 
kept from, 177. (See God, Reli- 
gion, etc.) 

Anti-Slavery : in Emerson ; s pulpit, 
57 ; the reform, 141, 145, 152 ; 
Emancipation address, 181 ; Bos- 
ton and New York addresses, 210- 
212 ; Emancipation Proclamation, 
228 ; Fugitive Slave Law, and other 
matters, 303-307. (See South.) 

Antoninus, Marcus, allusion, 16. 

Architecture, illustrations, 253. 

Arianism, 51. (See Unitarianism.) 

Aristotle : influence over Mary 
Emerson, 17 ; times mentioned, 
382. 

Arminianism, 51. (See Methodism, 
Religion, etc.) 

Arnim, Gisela von, 225. 

Arnold, Matthew : quotation about 
America, 137 : lecture, 236 ; on 
Milton, 315 ; his Thyrsis, 333 ; 
criticism, 334 ; string of Emerson's 
epithets, 406. 

Aryans, comparison, 312. 

Asia: a pet name, 176 ; immovable, 
200. 



424 



INDEX. 



Assabet River, 70, 71. 

Astronomy : Harp illustration, 108 ; 
stars against wrong , 252 , 253. { See 
Galileo, Stars, Venus, etc.) 

Atlantic Monthly : sketch of Dr. 
Ripley, 14, 15; of Mary Moody 
Emerson, 16 ; established, 221 ; 
supposititious club, 222 ; on Per- 
sian Poetry, 224 ; on Thoreau, 228 ; 
Emerson's contributions, 239, 241 ; 
Brahma, 296. 

Atmosphere : effect on inspiration, 
290 ; spiritual, 413, 414. 

Augustine, Emerson's study of, 
52. 

Authors, quoted by Emerson, 381- 
383. (See Plutarch, etc.) 

Bacon, Francis : allusion, 22, 111 : 
times quoted, 382. 

Bancroft, George : literary rank, 33 ; 
in college, 45. 

Barbier, Henri Auguste, on Napo- 
leon, 208. 

Barnwell, Robert W. : in history, 
45 ; in college, 47. 

Beaumont and Fletcher, disputed, 
line, 128, 129. 

Beauty : its nature, 74, 94, 95 ; an 
end, 99, 135, 182 ; study, 301. 

Beecher, Edward, on preexistence, 
391. (See Preexistence.) 

Behmen, Jacob : mysticism, 201, 
202, 396 ; citation, 380. 

Berkeley, Bishop : characteristics, 
189 ; matter, 300. 

Bible : Mary Emerson's study, 16 ; 
Mosaic cosmogony, 18 ; the Exo- 
dus, 35 ; the Lord's Supper, 5S ; 
Psalms, 68, 181, 182, 253 ; lost Par- 
adise, 101 ; Genesis, Sermon on 
the Mount, 102 ; Seer of Patmos, 
102, 103; Apocalypse, 105; Song 
of Songs, 117 ; Baruch's roll, 117, 
118 ; not closed, 122 ; the Sower, 
154 ; Noah's Ark, 191 ; Pharisee's 
trumpets, 255 ; names and imag- 
ery, 268 ; sparing the rod, 297 ; 
rhythmic mottoes, 314 ; beauty of 
Israel, 351 ; face of an angel, 352 ; 
barren fig-tree, 367 ; a classic, 376 ; 
body of death, " Peace be still ! " 
379; draught of fishes, 381; its 
semi - detached sentences, 405 ; 
Job quoted, 411; "the man 
Christ Jesus," 412 ; scattering 
abroad, 414. (See Christ, God, 
Religion, etc.) 

Bigelow, Jacob, on rural cemeteries, 
31. 



Biography, every man writes his 
own, 1. 

Blackmore, Sir Richard, contro- 
versy, 31. 

Bliss Family, 9. 

Bliss, Daniel, patriotism, 72. 

Blood, transfusion of, 256. 

Books, use and abuse, 110, 111. (See 
Emerson'' 's Essays.) 

Boston, Mass. : First Church, 10, 12, 
13 ; Woman's Club, 16 ; Harbor, 
19 ; nebular spot, 25, 26 ; its pul- 
pit darling, 27 ; Episcopacy, 28 ; 
Athenaeum, 31 ; magazines, 28-34 ; 
intellectual character, lights on its 
three hills, high caste religion, 34 ; 
Samaria and Jerusalem, 35 ; streets 
and squares, 37-39 ; Latin School, 
39, 40, 43 ; new buildings, 42 ; Mrs. 
Emerson's boarding-house, the 
Common as a pasture, 43 ; Unita- 
rian preaching, 51; a New England 
centre, 52 ; Emerson's settlement, 
54 ; Second Church, 55-61 ; lec- 
tures, 87, 88, 191 ; Trimount Ora- 
cle, 102 ; stirred by the Divinity- 
School address, 126; school-keep- 
ing, Roxbury, 129 ; aesthetic soci- 
ety, 149 ; Transcendentalists, 155, 
156 ; Bay, 172 ; Freeman Place 
Chapel, 210 : Saturday Club, 221- 
223 ; Burns Centennial, 224, 225 ; 
Parker meeting, 228 ; letters, 263, 
274, 275 ; Old South lecture, 294 ; 
Unitarianism, 298 ; Emancipation 
Proclamation, 307 ; special train, 
350 ; Sons of Liberty, 369 ; birth- 
place, 407; Baptists, 413. 

Boswell, James : allusion, 138 ; one 
lacking, 223 ; Life of Johnson, 268. 

Botany, 403. (See Science. ) 

Bowen, Francis : literary rank, 34 ; 
on Nature, 103, 104. 

Brook Farm, 159, 164-166, 189, 191. 
(See Transcendentalism, etc.) 

Brown, Howard N., prayer, 355. 

Brown, John, sympathy with, 211. 
(See Anti-Slavery, South.) 

Brownson, Orestes A., at a party, 
149. 

Bryant, William Cullen : his literary 
rank, 33 ; redundant syllable, 328 ; 
his translation of Homer quoted, 
378. 

Buckminster, Joseph Stevens : min- 
ister in Boston, 12, 26, 27, 52; 
Memoir, 29 ; destruction of Gol- 
dau, 31. 

Buddhism : like Transcendentalism, 
151 ; Buddhist nature, 188 ; saints 



INDEX. 



425 



298. (See Emerson's Poems, — 
Brahma, — India, etc. ) 

Buff on, on style, 341. 

Bulkeley Family, 4-7. 

Bulkeley, Peter : minister of Con- 
cord, 4-7, 71 ; comparison of ser- 
mons, 57 ; patriotism, 72 ; land- 
owner, 327. 

Bunyan, John, quoted, 169. 

Burke, Edmund: essay, 73; times 
mentioned, 3S2. 

Burns, Robert : festival, 224, 225 ; 
rank, 281 ; image referred to, 38G ; 
religious position, 409. (See Scot- 
land. ) 

Burroughs, John, view of English 
life, 335. 

Burton, Robert, quotations, 109, 
381. 

Buttrick, Major, in the Revolution, 
71, 72. 

Byron, Lord : allusion, 16 ; rank, 
2S1 ; disdain, 321 ; uncertain sky, 
335 ; parallelism, 399. 

Cabot, J. Elliot : on Emerson's lit- 
erary habits, 27 ; The Dial, 159 ; 
prefaces, 283, 302 ; Note, 295, 296 ;. 
Prefatory Note, 310, 311 ; the last 
meetings, 347, 348. 

Caesar, Julius, 184, 197. 

California, trip, 263-271, 359. (See 
Thayer. ) 

Calvin, John : his Commentary, 
103 ; used by Cotton, 286. 

Calvinism : William Emerson's want 
of sympathy with, 11, 12 ; out- 
grown, 51 ; predestination, 230 ; 
saints, 298 ; spiritual influx, 412. 
(See God, Puritanism, Religion, 
Unitarianisni. ) 

Cambridge, Mass. : Emerson teach- 
ing there, 50 ; exclusive circles, 
52. (See Harvard University.) 

Cant, disgust with, 156. 

Carlyle, Thomas : meeting Emerson, 
63 ; recollections of their rela- 
tions, 78-80, 83 ; Sartor Resartus, 
81, 82, 91 ; correspondence, 82, 83, 
89, 90, 127, 176, 177, 192, 315, 317, 
374, 380, 3S1, 406, 407 ; Life of 
Schiller, 91 ; on Nature, 104, 105 ; 
Miscellanies, 130 ; the Waterville 
Address, 136-138 ; influence, 149, 
150 ; on Transcendentalism, 156- 
158 ; The Dial, 160-163 ; Brook 
Farm, 164 ; friendship, 171 ; Chel- 
sea-visit, 194 ; bitter legacy, 196 ; 
love of power, 197 ; on Napoleon 
and G-oethe, 208 ; grumblings, 260 ; 



tobacco, 270 ; Sartor reprinted, 
272 ; paper on, 294 ; Emerson's 
dying friendship, 349 ; physique, 
363 ; Gallic fire, 3S6 ; on Charac- 
teristics, 3S7 ; personality trace- 
able, 3S9. 

Carperter, William B., 230. 

Century, The, essay in, 295. 

Cerebration, unconscious, 112, 113. 

Chalmers, Thomas, preaching, 65. 

Channing, Walter, headache, 175, 
390. 

Charming, William Ellery : allusion, 
16 ; directing Emerson's studies, 
51 ; preaching, 52 ; Emerson in his 
pulpit, 66 ; influence, 147, 149 ; 
kept awake, 157. 

Channing, William Ellery, the poet : 
his Wanderer, 263 ; Poems, 403. 

Channing, William Henry : allu- 
sions, 131, 149 ; in The Dial, 159 ; 
the Fuller Memoir, 209 ; Ode in- 
scribed to, 211, 212. 

Charleston, S. C, Emerson's preach- 
ing, 53. (See South. ) 

Charlestown, Mass., Edward Emer- 
son's residence, 8. 

Charles V., 197. 

Charles XII., 197. 

Chatelet, Parent du, a realist, 326. 

Chatham, Lord, 255. 

Chaucer, Geoffrey : borrowings, 205 ; 
rank, 281 ; honest rhymes, 340 ; 
times mentioned, 382. 

Chelmsford, Mass., Emerson teach- 
ing there, 49, 50. 

Chemistry, 403. (See Science.) 

Cheshire, its "haughty hill," 323. 

Choate, Rufus, oratory, 148. 

Christ : reserved expressions about, 
13 ; mediatorship, 59 ; true office, 
120-122; worship, 412. (See Jesus, 
Religion, etc.) 

Christianity : its essentials, 13 ; 
primitive, 35 ; a mythus, defects, 
121 ; the true, 122 ; two benefits, 
123 : authority, 124 ; incarnation 
of, 176 ; the essence, 306 ; Fathers, 
391. 

Christian, Emerson a, 267. 

Christian Examiner, The : on Wil- 
liam Emerson, 12 ; its literary 
predecessor, 29 ; on Nature, 103, 
104 ; repudiates Divinity School 
Addi'ess, 124. 

Church : activity in 1820, 147 ; avoid- 
ance of, 153 : the true, 244 ; music, 
306. (See God, Jesus, Religion, 
etc.) 

Cicero, allusion, 111. 



426 



INDEX. 



Cid, the, 184. 

Clarke, James Freeman : letters, 77- 
80, 128-131 ; transcendentalism, 
149; The Dial, 159; Fuller Me- 
moir, 209 ; Emerson's funeral, 351, 
353-355. 

Clarke, Samuel, allusion, 16. 

Clarke, Sarah, sketches, 130. 

Clarkson, Thomas, 220. 

Clergy : among Emerson's ancestry, 
3-8 ; gravestones, 9. (See Cotton, 
Heredity, etc.) 

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor : allusion, 
16 ; Emerson's account, 63 ; influ- 
ence, 149, 150 ; Carlyle's criti- 
cism, 196 ; Ancient Mariner, 333 ; 
Christabel, Abyssinian Maid, 334 ; 
times mentioned, 382 ; an image 
quoted, 386 ; William Tell, 387. 

Collins, William : poetry, 321 ; Ode 
and Dirge, 332. 

Commodity, essay, 94. 

Concentration, 288. 

Concord, Mass. : Bulkeley's minis- 
try, 4-7 ; first association with the 
Emerson name, 7 ; Joseph's de- 
scendants, 8 ; the Fight, 9 ; Dr. 
Ripley, 10 ; Social Club, 14 ; Emer- 
son's preaching, 54 ; Goodwin's 
settlement, 56 ; discord, 57 ; Em- 
erson's residence begun, 69, 70 ; 
a typical town, 70 ; settlement, 
71 ; a Delphi, 72 ; Emerson home, 
83; Second Centennial, 84, 85, 
303 ; noted citizens, 86 ; town 
government, the, monument, 87 ; 
the Sage, 102; letters, 125-131, 
225; supposition of Carlyle's life 
there, 171 ; Emancipation Ad- 
dress, 1S1 ; leaving, 192 ; John 
Brown meeting, 211 ; Samuel 
Hoar, 213 ; wide-awake, 221 ; Lin- 
coln obsequies, 243, 307 ; an un- 
tfer-Concord, 256; fire, 271-279; 
letters, 275-279 ; return, 279; Min- 
ute Man unveiled, 292 ; Soldiers' 
Monument, 303; land-owners, 327; 
memorial stone, 333 ; Conway's 
visits, 343, 344 ; Whitman's, 344, 
345 ; Russell's, 345 ; funeral, 350- 
356 ; founders, 352 ; Sleepy Hol- 
low, 356 ; a strong attraction, 369 ; 
neighbors, 373 ; Prophet, 415. 

Congdon, Charles, his Reminis- 
cences, 66. 

Conservatism, fairly treated, 156, 
157. (See Reformers, Religion, 
Transcendentalism, etc.) 

Conversation : C. C. Emerson's es- 
say, 22, 258 ; inspiration, 290. 



Conway, Moncure D. : account of 
Emerson, 55, 56, 66, 194; two 
visits, 343, 344 ; anecdote, 346 ; 
error, 401 ; on Stanley, 414. 

Cooke, George Willis : biography of 
Emerson, 43, 44, 66, 88 ; on Amer- 
ican Scholar, 107, 108 ; on anti- 
slavery, 212 ; on Parnassus, 280- 
282 ; on pantheism, 411. 

Cooper, James Fenimore, 33. 

Corot, pearly mist, 335, 336. (See 
Pictures, etc.) 

Cotton, John: service to scholar- 
ship, 34 ; reading Calvin, 286. 

Counterparts, the story, 226. 

Cowper, William : Mother's Picture, 
178; disinterested good, 304; ten- 
derness, 333 ; verse, 338. 

Cranch, Christopher P.: The Dial, 
159 ; poetic prediction, 416, 417. 

Cromwell, Oliver : saying by a war 
saint, 252 ; in poetry, 387. 

Cudworth, Ralph, epithets, 200. 

Cupples, George, on Emerson's lec- 
tures, 195. 

Curtius, Quintus for Mettus, 388. 

Gushing, Caleb : rank, 33 ; in col- 
lege, 45. 

Dana, Richard Henry, his literary 
place, 33, 223. 

Dante : allusion in Anthology, 31 ; 
rank, 202, 320 ; times mentioned, 
382. 

Dartmouth College, oration, 131- 
135. 

Darwin, Charles, Origin of Species, 
105. 

Dawes, Rufus, Boyhood Memories, 
44. 

Declaration of Independence, in- 
tellectual, 115. (See American, 
etc.) 

Delirium, imaginative, easily pro- 
duced, 238. (See Intuition.) 

Delia Cruscans, allusion, 152. (See 
Transcendentalism. ) 

Delos, allusion, 374. 

Delphic Oracle : of New England, 
72 ; illustration, 84. 

Democratic Review, The, on Nature, 
103. 

De Profundis, illustrating Carlyle's 
spirit, 83. 

De Quincey, Thomas : Emerson's 
interview with, 63, 195 ; on origi- 
nality, 92. 

De Stael, Mme., allusion, 16. 

De Tocquevillle, account of Unita- 
rianism, 51. 



INDEX. 



427 



Dewey, Orville, New Bedford minis- 
try, 67. 

Dexter, Lord Timothy, punctuation, 
325, 326. 

Dial, The : established, 147, 15S ; 
editors, 159 ; influence, 160-163 ; 
death, 164 ; poems, 192 ; old con- 
tributors, 221 ; papers, 295 ; intui- 
tions, 394. 

Dial, The (second), in Cincinnati, 
239. 

Dickens, Charles : on Father Taylor, 
56 ; American Notes, 155. 

Diderot, Denis, essay, 79. 

Diogenes, story, 401. (See Laertius.) 

Disinterestedness, 259. 

Disraeli, Benjamin, the rectorship, 
282. 

Dramas, their limitations, 375. (See 
Shakespeare.) 

Dress, illustration of poetry, 311, 
312. 

Dryden, John, quotation, 20, 21. 

Dwight, John S. : in The Dial, 159 ; 
musical critic, 223. 

East Lexington, Mass., the Unita- 
rian pulpit, 88. 

Economy, its meaning, 142. 

Edinburgh, Scotland : Emerson's 
visit and preaching, 64, 65; lec- 
ture, 195. 

Education : through friendship, 97, 
98 ; public questions, 258, 259. 

Edwards, Jonathan : allusions, 16, 
51 ; the atmosphere changed, 414. 
(See Calvinism, Puritanism, 
Unitarianism, etc.) 

Egotism, a pest, 233. 

Egypt : poetic teaching. 121 ; trip, 
271, 272 ; Sphinx, 330. (See Emer- 
son' 's Poems, — Sphinx.) 

Election Sermon, illustration, 112. 

Elizabeth, Queen, verbal heir-loom, 
313. (See Raleigh, etc.) 

Ellis, Rufus, minister of the First 
Church, Boston, 43. 

Eloquence, defined, 285, 286. 

Emerson Family, 3 et seq. 

Emerson, Charles Chauncy, brother 
of Ralph Waldo : feeling towards 
natural science, 18, 237 ; memo- 
ries, 19-25, 37, 43 ; character, 77 ; 
death, 89, 90 ; influence, 9S ; The 
Dial, 161 ; " the hand of Doug- 
las," 234 ; nearness, 368 ; poetry, 
385 ; Harvard Register, 401. 

Emerson, Edith, daughter of Ralph 
Waldo, 2G3. 

Emerson, Edward, of Newbury, 8. 



Emerson, Edward Bliss, brother of 
Ralph Waldo : allusions, 19, 20, 
37, 38 ; death, 89 ; Last Farewell, 
poem, 161 ; nearness, 368. 

Emerson, Edward Waldo, son of 
Ralph Waldo : in New York, 246 ; 
on the Farming essay, 255 ; father's 
last days, 346-349 ; reminiscences, 
359. 

Emerson, Ellen, daughter of Ralph 
Waldo : residence, 83; trip to Eu- 
rope, 271 ; care of her father, 294 ; 
correspondence, 347. 

Emerson, Mrs. Ellen Louisa Tucker, 
first wife of Ralph Waldo, 55. 

Emerson, Joseph, minister of Men- 
don, 4, 7, 8. 

Emerson, Joseph, the second, min- 
ister of Maiden, 8. 

Emerson, Mrs. Lydia Jackson, sec- 
ond wife of Ralph Waldo : mar- 
riage, 83 ; Asia, 176. 

Emerson, Mary Moody: influence 
over her nephew, 16-18 ; quoted, 
385. 

Emerson, Peter Bulkeley, brother of 
Ralph Waldo, 37. 

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, his Life: 
moulding influences, 1 ; New Eng- 
land heredity, 2 ; ancestry, 3-10 ; 
parents, 10-16 ; Aunt Mary, 16-19 ; 
brothers, 19-25 ; the nest, 25 ; 
noted scholars, 26-36 ; birthplace, 
37, 38 ; boyhood, 39, 40 ; early 
efforts, 41, 42 ; parsonages, 42 ; 
father's death, 43 ; boyish appear- 
ance, 44 ; college days, 45-47 ; let- 
ter, 48 ; teaching, 49, 50 ; study- 
ing theology, and preaching, 51- 
54 ; ordination, marriage, 55 ; be- 
nevolent efforts, wife's death, 56 ; 
withdrawal from his church, 57- 
61 ; first trip to Europe, 62-65 ; 
preaching in America, 66, 67 ; re- 
membered conversations, 68, 69 ; 
residence in the Old Manse, 69-72 ; 
lecturing, essays in The North 
American, 73 ; poems, 74 ; portray- 
ing himself, 75 ; comparison with 
Milton, 76, 77 ; letters to Clarke, 
78-80, 128-131 ; interest in Sartor 
Resartus, 81 ; first letter to Car- 
lyle, 82 ; second marriage and 
Concord home, 83 ; Second Cen- 
tennial, 84-87 : Boston lectures, 
Concord Fight, 87 ; East Lexing- 
ton church, War, 88 ; death of 
brothers, 89, 90 ; Nature published, 
91 ; parallel with Wordsworth, 92 ; 
free utterance, 93 ; Beauty, poems, 



428 



INDEX. 



94 ; Language, 95-97 ; Discipline, 
97, 98 ; Idealism, 98, 99 ; Illusions, 
99, 100 ; Spirit and Matter, 100 ; 
Paradise regained, 101 ; the Bible 
spirit, 102 ; Revelations, 103 ; Bow- 
en's criticism, 104 ; Evolution, 
105, 106 ; Phi Beta Kappa oration, 
107, 108; fable of the One Man, 
109 ; man thinking, 110 ; Books, 
111 ; unconscious cerebration, 112 ; 
a scholar's duties, 113 ; specialists, 
114 ; a declaration of intellectual 
independence, 115 ; address at the 
Theological School, 116, 117 ; ef- 
fect on Unitarians, 118 ; sentiment 
of duty, 119 ; Intuition, 120 ; Rea- 
son, 121 ; the Traditional Jesus, 
122 ; Sabbath and Preaching, 123 ; 
correspondence with Ware, 124- 
127 ; ensuing controversy, 127 ; 
Ten Lectures, 128 ; Dartmouth 
Address, 131-136 ; Waterville Ad- 
dress, 136-140 ; reforms, 141-145 ; 
new views, 146 ; Past and Present, 
147 ; on Everett, 148 ; assembly 
at Dr. Warren's, 149 ; Boston doc- 
trinaires, 150 ; unwise followers, 
151-156 ; Conservatives, 156, 157 ; 
two Transcendental products, 157- 
166 ; first volume of Essays, 166 ; 
History, 167, 168 ; Self-reliance, 
168, 169 ; Compensation, 169 ; other 
essays, 170 ; Friendship, 170, 171 ; 
Heroism, 372 ; Over-Soul, 172-175 ; 
house and income, 176 ; son's 
death, 177, 178 ; American and 
Oriental qualities, 179 ; English 
virtues, 180 ; Emancipation ad- 
dresses in 1844, 181 ; second series 
of Essays, 181-188 ; Reformers, 
188-191 ; Carlyle's business, Poems 
published, 192 ; a second trip to 
Europe, 193-196 ; Representative 
Men, 196-209 ; lectures again, 210 ; 
Abolitionism, 211, 212 ; Woman's 
Rights, 212, 213 ; a New England 
Roman, 213, 214 ; English Traits, 
214-221 ; a new magazine, 221 ; 
clubs, 222, 223 ; more poetry, 224 ; 
Burns Festival, 224 ; letter about 
various literary matters, 225-227 ; 
Parker's death, Lincoln's Procla- 
mation, 228 ; Conduct of Life, 228- 
239 ; Boston Hymn, 240 ; " So nigh 
is grandeur to our dust," 241 ; At- 
lantic contributions, 242 ; Lincoln 
obsequies, 243 ; Free Religion, 243, 
244 •, second Phi Beta Kappa ora- 
tion, 244-246; poem read to his 
son, 246-248 ; Harvard Lectures, 



249-255 ; agriculture and science, 
255, 256 ; predictions, 257 ; Books, 
258 ; Conversation, 258 ; elements 
of Courage, 259 ; Success, 260, 261 ; 
on old men, 261, 262 ; California 
trip, 263-268 ; eating, 269 ; smok- 
ing, 270 ; conflagration, loss of 
memory, Froude banquet, third 
trip abroad, 272 ; friendly gifts, 
272-279; editing Parnassus, 280- 
282 ; failing powers, 283 ; Hope 
everywhere, 284 ; negations, 285 ; 
Eloquence, Pessimism, 286 ; Com- 
edjr, Plagiarism, 287 ; lessons re- 
peated, 288 ; Sources of Inspira- 
tion, 289, 290; Future Life, 290- 
292 ; dissolving creed, 292 ; Con- 
cord Bridge, 292, 293 ; decline of 
faculties, Old South lecture, 294 ; 
papers, 294, 295 ; quiet pen, 295 ; 
posthumous works, 295 et seq. ; 
the pedagogue, 297 ; University of 
Virginia, 299 ; indebtedness to 
Plutarch, 299-302 ; slavery ques- 
tions, 303-308 ; Woman Question, 
308 ; patriotism, 308. 309 ; nothing 
but a poet, 311 ; antique words, 
313; self -revelation, 313, 314; a 
great poet ? 314-316 ; humility, 
317-319 ; poetic favorites, 320, 
321 ; comparison with contempora- 
ries, 321 ; citizen of the universe, 
322 ; fascination of symbolism, 
323 ; realism, science, imaginative 
coloring, 324 ; dangers of realistic 
poetry, 325 ; range of subjects, 
326 ; bad rhymes, 327 ; a trick of 
verse, 328 ; one faultless poem, 
332 ; spell - bound readers, 333 ; 
workshop, 334 ; octosyllabic verse, 
atmosphere, 335, 336 ; compar- 
ison with Wordsworth, 337 ; and 
others, 338 ; dissolving sentences, 
339 ; incompleteness, 339, 340 ; 
personality, 341, 342; last visits 
received, 343-345; the red rose, 
345 ; f orgetfulness, 346 ; literary 
work of last years, 346, 347 ; let- 
ters unanswered, 347 ; hearing and 
sight, subjects that interested him, 
348 ; later hours, death, 349 ; last 
rites, 350-356; portrayal, 357- 
419 ; atmosphere, 357 ; books, dis- 
tilled alcohol, 358 ; physique, 359 ; 
demeanor, 360 ; hair and eyes, in- 
sensibility to music, 361 ; daily 
habits, 362 ; bodily infirmities, 
362, 363 ; voice, 363 ; quiet laugh- 
ter, want of manual dexterity, 
364; spade anecdote, memory, 



inde: 



429 



ignorance of exact science, 365 ; 
intuition and natural sagacity 
united, fastidiousness, 368 ; impa- 
tience with small-minded worship- 
pers, Frothingham's Biography, 
367 ; intimates, familiarity not in- 
vited, 368 ; among fellow-towns- 
men, errand to earth, inherited 
traditions, 369 ; sealed orders, 
370, 371 ; conscientious work, sac- 
rifices lor truth, essays instead 
of sermons, 372 ; congregation 
at large, charm, optimism, 373 ; 
financially straitened, 374 ; lec- 
ture room limitations, 374, 375 ; 
a Shakespeare parallel, 375, 376 ; 
platform fascination, 376 ; con- 
structive power, 376, 377 ; English 
experiences, lecture-peddling, 377; 
a stove relinquished, utterance, 
an hour's weight, 378; trumpet- 
sound, sweet seriousness, diamond 
drops, effect on Governor Andrew, 
379 ; learning at second hand, 380 ; 
the study of Goethe, 380 ; a great 
quoter, no pedantry, 3S1 ; list of 
authors referred to, 381, 3S2 ; spe- 
cial indebtedness, 382 ; penetra- 
tion, borrowing, 383 ; method of 
writing and its results, aided by 
others, 384 ; sayings that seem 
family property, 3S5 ; passages 
compared, 3S5-387 ; the tributary 
streams, 388 ; accuracy as to facts, 
888 ; personalities traceable in 
him, 389 ; place as a thinker, 390 ; 
Platonic anecdote, 391 ; preexist- 
ence, 391, 392 ; mind-moulds, 393 ; 
relying on instinct, 394 ; dangers 
of intuition, 395 ; mysticism, 396 ; 
Oriental side, 397 ; transcendental 
mood, 39S ; personal identity con- 
fused, 399 ; a distorting mirror, 
400 ; distrust of science, 40f-403 ; 
style illustrated, 403, 404 ; favor- 
ite words, 405 ; royal imagery, 
406 ; comments on America, 406, 
407 ; common property of man- 
kind, 407 ; public spirit, solitary 
workshop, martyrdom from visit- 
ors, 408 ; white shield invulnerable, 
409; religious attitude, 409-411; 
spiritual influx, creed, 412 ; cler- 
ical relations, 413 ; Dr. Hague's 
criticism, 413, 414 ; ameliorating 
religious influence, 414 ; freedom, 
415 ; enduring verse and thought, 
416, 417 ; comparison with Jesus, 
417 ; sincere manhood, 418 ; trans- 
parency, 419. 



Emerson's Books : — 

Conduct of Life, 229, 237. 

English Traits : the first European 
trip, G2 ; published, 214 ; analy- 
sis, 214-220; penetration, 383; 
Teutonic fire, 386. 

Essays : Dickens's allusion, 156 ; 
collected, 166. 

Essays, second series, 183. 

Lectures and Biographical Sketch- 
es, 128, 295, 296, 347. 

Letters and Social Aims, 210, 2S3, 
284, 296. 

May-day and Other Pieces, 161, 
192, 224, 242, 257, 310, 318, 346. 

Memoir of Margaret Fuller, 209. 

Miscellanies, 302, 303. 

Nature, Addresses, and Lectures, 
179. 

Nature : resemblance of extracts 
from Mary Moody Emerson, 17 ; 
where written, 70 ; the Many in 
One, 73; first published, 91, 92, 
373 ; analysis, 93-107 ; obscure, 
108; Beauty, 237. 

Parnassus : collected, 280 ; Pref- 
ace, 314 ; allusion, 321. 

Poems, 293, 310, 318, 339. 

Representative Men, 196-209. 

Selected Poems, 311, 347. 

Society and Solitude, 250. 
Emerson's Essays, Lectures, Ser- 
mons, Speeches, etc. : — 

In general : essays, 73, 88, 91, 
92, 310 ; income from lectures, 
176, 191, 192 ; lectures in Eng- 
land, 194-196 ; long series, 372 ; 
lecture-room, 374 ; plays and 
lectures, 375 ; double duty, 376, 
377 ; charm, 379. (See Emer- 
son's Life. Lyceum, etc. ) 

American Civilization, 307. 

American Scholar, The, 107-115, 
133, 188. 

Anglo-Saxon Race, The, 210. 

Anti-Slavery Address, New York, 
210-212. 

Anti-Slavery Lecture, Boston, 210, 
211. 

Aristocracy, 296. 

Art, 166, 175, 253, 254. 

Beauty, 235-237. 

Behavior, 234. 

Books, 257, 380. 

Brown, John, 302, 305, 306. 

Burke, Edmund, 73. 

Burns, Robert, 224, 225, 307. 

Carlyle, Thomas, 294, 302, 317. 

Channing's Poem, preface, 262, 
263, 403. 



:80 



INDEX. 



Character, 183, 295, 297. 

Chardon Street and Bible Conven- 
tion, 159, 302. 

Circles, 16G, 174, 175. 

Civilization, 250-253. 

Clubs, 258. 

Comedy. 128. 

Comic, the, 2S6, 287. 

Commodity, 94. 

Compensation, 166, 169. 

Concord Fight, the anniversary 
speech, 292, 293. 

Concord, Second Centennial Dis- 
course, 84-86. 

Conservative, The, 156, 157, 
159. 

Considerations by the Way, 235. 

Courage, 259. 

Culture, 232, 233. 

Demonology, 128, 296. 

Discipline, 97, 98. 

Divinity School Address, 116-127, 
131. 

Doctrine of the Soul, 127. 

Domestic .Life, 254, 255. 

Duty, 128. 

Editorial Address, Mass. Quar- 
terly Review, 193, 302, 307. 

Education, 296, 297. 

Eloquence, 254 ; second essay, 
285, 286. 

Emancipation in the British West 
Indies, 181, 303. 

Emancipation Proclamation, 228, 
307. 

Emerson, Mary Moody, 295, 296, 
302. 

English Literature, 87. 

Experience, 182. 

Farming, 255, 256. 

Fate, 228-330. 

Fortune of the Republic, 294, 302, 
.307-309. 

Fox, George, 73. 

France, 196. 

Free Religious Association, 243, 
302, 307. 

Friendship, 166, 170. 

Froude, James Anthony, after- 
dinner speech, 271. 

Fugitive Slave Law, 303, 304. 

Genius, 127. 

Gifts, 184, 185. 

Goethe, or the Writer, 208, 209. 

Greatness, 288, 346. 

Harvard Commemoration, 307. 

Heroism, 166, 172. 

Historical Discourse, at Concord, 
303. 

Historic Notes of Life and Letters 



in New England, 147, 165, 296, 
302. 

History, 166. 167. 

Hoar, Samuel, 213, 214, 295, 302. 

Home, 127. 

Hope, 284, 285. 

Howard University, speech, 263. 

Human Culture, 87. 

Idealism, 98-100. 

Illusions, 235, 239. 

Immortality, 266, 290-292, 354. 

Inspiration, 289. 

Intellect, 166, 175. 

Kansas Affairs, 305. 

Kossuth, 307. 

Language, 95-97. 

Lincoln, Abraham, funeral re- 
marks, 24'2, 243, 307. 

Literary Ethics, 131-136. 

Lord's Supper, 57-60, 303. 

Love, 127, 128, 166, 170. (See Em- 
erson' 's Poems.) 

Luther, 73. 

Manners, 183, 234. 

Man of Letters, The, 296, 298. 

Man the Reformer, 142, 143. 

Method of Nature, The, 136-141. 

Michael Angelo, 73, 75. 

Milton, 73, 75. 

Montaigne, or the Skeptic, 202- 
204. 

Napoleon, or the Man of the 
World, 206-209. 

Natural History of the Intellect, 
249 268 347. 

Nature (the essay), 185, 186, 398. 

New England Reformers, 188-191 , 
385. 

Nominalism and Realism, 188. 

Old Age, 261, 262. 

Over-Soul, The, 166, 172-175, 39S, 
411. 

Parker, Theodore, 228, 306. 

Perpetual Forces, 297. 

Persian Poetry, 224. 

Phi Beta Kappa oration, 347. 

Philosophy of History, 87. 

Plato, 198-200; New Readings, 
200. 

Plutarch, 295, 299-302. 

Plutarch's Morals, introduction, 
262. 

Poet, The, 181, 182. 

Poetry, 210. 

Poetry and Imagination, 283 ; sub- 
divisions : Bards and Trouveurs, 
Creation, Form, Imagination, 
Melody, Morals, Rhythm, Po- 
etry, Transcendency, Veracity, 
283, 284 ; quoted, 325. 



INDEX. 



431 



Politics, 186, 187. 

Power, 230, 231. 

Preacher, The, 294, 29S. 

Professions of Divinity, Law, and 
Medicine, 41. 

Progress of Culture, The, 244, 
288. 

Prospects, 101-103. 

Protest, The, 127. 

Providence Sermon, 130. 

Prudence, 166, 171, 172. 

Quotation and Originality, 287, 
288. 

Relation of Man to the Globe, 73. 

Resources, 2S6. 

Right Hand^of Fellowship, The, 
at Concord, 56. 

Ripley, Dr. Ezra, 295, 302. 

Scholar, The, 296, 299. 

School, The, 127. 

Scott, speech, 302, 307. 

Self-Rehance, 166, 168, 411. 

Shakespeare, or the Poet, 204- 
206. 

Social Aims, 285. 

Soldiers' Monument, at Concord, 
303. 

Sovereignty of Ethics, The, 295, 
297, 298. 

Spirit, 100, 101. 

Spiritual Laws, 166, 168. 

Success, 260, 261. 

Sumner Assault, 304. 

Superlatives, 295, 297. 

Swedenborg, or the Mystic, 201, 
202, 206. 

Thoreau, Henry D., 228, 295, 302. 

Times, The, 142-145. 

Tragedy, 127. 

Transcendentalist, The, 145-155, 
159. 

Universality of the Moral Senti- 
ment, 66. 

University of Virginia, address, 
347. 

War, 88, 303. 

Water, 73. 

Wealth, 231, 232. 

What is Beauty ? 74, 94, 95. 

Woman, 307, 308. 

Woman's Rights, 212, 213. 

Work and Days, 256, 312, 406, 407. 

Worship, 235. 

Young American, The, 166, 180, 
181. 
Emerson's Poems : — 

In general : inspiration from na- 
ture, 22, 96 ; poetic rank in col- 
lege, 45, 46 ; prose-poetry and 
philosophy, 91, 93 ; annual affla- 



tus, in America, 136, 137 ; first 
volume, 192 ; five immortal po- 
ets, 202 ; ideas repeated, 239 ; 
true position, 311 et seq. ; in 
carmine Veritas, 313 ; litanies, 
314; arithmetic, 321, 322; fas- 
cination, 323 ; celestial imagery, 
324 ; tin pans, 325 ; realism, 
326; metrical difficulties, 327, 
335 ; blemishes, 328 ; careless 
rhymes, 329 ; delicate descrip- 
tions, 331 ; pathos, 332 ; fasci- 
nation, 333 ; unfinished, 334, 
339, 340 ; atmosphere, 335 ; sub- 
jectivity, 336 ; sympathetic il- 
lusion, 337 ; resemblances, 337, 
338 ; rhythms, 340 ; own order, 
341, 342; always a poet, 346. 
(See Emerson's Life, Milton, 
Poets efce.^ 

Adirondacs, The, 242, 309, 327. 

Blight, 402. 

Boston, 346, 407, 408. 

Boston Hymn, 211, 221, 241, 242. 

Brahma, 221, 242, 396, 397. 

Celestial Love, 170. (Three 
Loves.) 

Class Day Poem, 45-47. 

Concord Hymn, 87, 332. 

Daemonic Love, 170. (Three 
Loves.) 

Days, 221, 242, 257, 312 ; pleached, 
313. 

Destiny, 332. 

Each and All, 73, 74, 94, 331. 

Earth-Song, 327. 

Elements, 242. 

Fate, 159, 387. 

Flute, The, 399. 

Good-by, Proud World, 129, 130, 
338. 

Hamatreya, 327, 

Harp, The, 320, 321, 329, 330. (See 
JEolian Harp.) 

Hoar, Samuel, 213, 214. 

Humble Bee, 46, 74, 75, 128, 272, 
326, 331, 338. 

Initial Love, 170, 387. (Three 
Loves. ) 

In Memoriam, 19, 89. 

Latin Translations, 43. 

May Day, 242 ; changes, 311, 333 

Merlin, 318, 319. (Merlin's Song.) 

Mithridates, 331. 

Monadnoc, 322. 331 ; alterations, 
366. 

My Garden, 242. 

Nature and Life, 242. 

Occasional and Miscellaneous 
Pieces, 242. 



432 



INDEX. 



Ode inscribed to W. H. Channing, 

211, 212. 
Poet, The, 317-320, 333. 
Preface to Nature, 105. 
Problem, The, 159, 161, 253, 284, 

326, 337, 380. 
Quatrains, 223, 242. 
Rhodora, The, 74, 94, 95, 129. 
Romany Girl, The, 221. 
Saadi, 221, 242. 
Sea-Shore, 333, 339. 
Snow-Storm, 331, 338, 339. 
Solution, 320. 
Song for Knights of Square Table, 

42. 
Sphinx, The, 113, 159, 243, 330, 

398. 
Terminus, 221, 242 ; read to his 

son, 246-248, 363. 
Test, The, 201, 202, 320. 
Threnody, 178, 333. 
Titmouse, The, 221, 326. 
Translations, 242, 399. 
Uriel, 326, 331, 398. 
Voluntaries, 241. 
Waldeinsamkeit, 221. 
Walk, The, 402. 
Woodnotes, 46, 159, 331, 338. 
World-Soul, The, 331. 

Emersoniana, 358. 

Emerson, Thomas, of Ipswich, 38. 

Emerson, Waldo, child of Ralph 
Waldo : death, 177, 178 ; anec- 
dote, 265. 

Emerson, William, grandfather of 
Ralph Waldo : minister of Con- 
cord, 8-10, 14 ; building the Manse, 
70 ; patriotism, 72. 

Emerson, William, father of Ralph 
Waldo : minister, in Harvard and 
Boston, 10-14 ; editorship, 26, 32, 
33 ; the parsonage, 37, 42 ; death, 
43. 

Emerson, William, brother of Ralph 
Waldo, 37, 39, 49, 53. 

England : first visit, 62-65 ; Lake 
Windermere, 70 ; philosophers, 
76 ; the virtues of the people, 179, 
180 ; a second visit, 192 et seg. ; 
notabilities 195 ; the lectures, 196 ; 
Stonehenge, 215 ; the aristocracy, 
215 ; matters wrong, 260 ; Anglo- 
Saxon race, trade and liberty, 304 ; 
lustier life, 335 ; language, 352 ; 
lecturing, a key, 377 ; smouldering 
fire, 385. (See America, Europe, 
etc.) 

Enthusiasm : need of, 143 ; weak- 
ness, 154. 

Epicurus, agreement with, 301. 



Episcopacy: in Boston, 28, 34, 52; 
church in Newton, 68 ; at Hano- 
ver, 132 ; quotation from liturgy, 
354 ; burial service, 356. ( See Cal- 
vinism, Church, Religion, etc.) 

Esquimau, allusion, 167. 

Establishment, party of the, 147. 
(See Puritanism, Religion, Uni- 
tarianism, etc. ) 

Eternal, relations to the, 297. (See 
God, Jesus, Religion, etc. ) 

Europe : Emerson's first visit, 62- 
65; return, 72; the Muses, 114; 
debt to the East, 120 ; famous 
gentlemen, 184 ; second visit, 193- 
196 ; weary of Napoleon, 207 ; re- 
turn, 210 : conflict possible, 218 ; 
third visit, 271-279 ; cast-out pas- 
sion for, 308. (See America, Eng- 
land, France, etc.) 

Everett, Edward : on Tudor, 28 ; 
literary rank, 33 ; preaching, 52 ; 
influence, 148. 

Evolution, taught in " Nature," 105, 
106. 

Eyeball, transparent, 398. 

Faith : lacking in America, 143 , 
building cathedrals, 253. (See 
God, Religion, etc.) 

Fine, a characteristic expression, 
405. 

Fire, illustration, 386. (See Eng- 
land, France, etc.) 

Forbes, John M., connected with the 
Emerson family, 263-265 ; his 
letter, 263. 

Foster, John, minister of Brighton, 
15. 

Fourth-of-July, orations, 386, (See 
America, etc.) 

Fox, George, essay on, 73. 

France : Emerson's first visit, 62, 
63; philosophers, 76; Revolution, 
80; tired of Napoleon, 207, 208; 
realism, 326 ; wrath, 385, 386. (See 
Carlyle, England, Europe, etc.) 

Francis, Convers, at a party, 149. 

Franklin, Benjamin : birthplace, 37 ; 
allusion, 184 ; characteristics, 189 ; 
Poor Richard, 231; quoted, 236; 
maxims, 261 ; fondness for Plu- 
tarch, 382 ; bequest, 407. 

Fraunhofer, Joseph, optician, 230, 
324. 

Frazer's Magazine : " The Mud," 
79; Sartor Resartus, 81. (See 
Carlyle. ) 

Freeman, James, minister of King's 
Chapel, 11, 12, 52. 



INDEX. 



433 



Free Trade, Athenseum banquet, 
220. 

Friendship, C. C. Emerson's essay, 
22, 23, 77. 

Frothingliarn, Nathaniel L., account 
of Emerson's mother, 13. 

Frothingham, Octavius Brooks : Life 
of Ripley, 165 ; an unpublished 
manuscript, 365-367. 

Fuller, Margaret : borrowed sermon, 
130 ; at a party, 149 ; The Dial, 
159, 160, 162 ; Memoir, 209 ; caus- 
ing laughter, 364 ; mosaic Biogra- 
phy, 368. 

Furness, William Henry : on the 
Emerson family, 14; Emerson's 
funeral, 350, 353. 

Future, party of the, 147. 

Galton, Francis, composite por- 
traits, 232. 

Gardiner, John Sylvester John : al- 
lusion, 26 ; leadership in Boston, 
28; Anthology Society, 32. (See 
Episcopacy.) 

Gardner, John Lowell, recollections 
of Emerson's boyhood, 38^42. 

Gardner, S. P., garden, 38. 

Genealogy, survival of the fittest, 3. 
(See Heredity.) 

Gentleman's Magazine, 30. 

Gentleman, the, 183. 

Geography, illustration, 391. 

German : study of, 48, 49, 78, 330 
philosophers, 76 ; scholarship, 148 
oracles, 206 ; writers unread, 208 
philosophers, 380 ; professors, 391. 

Germany, a visit, 225, 226. (See 
Europe, France, Goethe, etc.) 

Gifts, 185. 

Gilfillan, George : on Emerson's 
preaching, 65; Emerson's phy- 
sique, 360. 

Gilman, Arthur, on the Concord 
home, 83. 

Glasgow, the rectorship, 280. 

God : the universal spirit, 68, 69, 
94 ; face to face, 92, 93 ; teaching 
the human mind, 98, 99 ; aliens 
from, 101 ; in us, 139-141 ; his 
thought, 146 ; belief, 170 ; seen by 
man, 174 ; divine offer, 176 ; writ- 
ing by grace, 182 ; presence, 243 ; 
tribute to Great First Cause, 267 ; 
perplexity about, 410 ; ever-blessed 
One, 411 ; mirrored, 412. (See 
Christianity , Religion, etc. ) 

Goethe: called Mr. , 31 ; dead, 63; 
Clarke's essay, 79; generalizations, 
148; influence, 150; on Spinoza, 
28 



174, 175 ; rank as a poet, 202, 320 ; 
lovers, 226 ; rare union, 324 ; his 
books read, 380, 381; times quoted, 
382. (See German, etc.) 

Goldsmith, Oliver, his Vicar of 
Wakefield, 9, 10, 15. 

Good, the study of, 301. 

Goodwin, H. B., Concord minister, 
56. 

Gould, Master of Latin School, 39. 

Gould, Thomas R., sculptor, 68. 

Gourdin, John Gaillard Keith and 
Robert, in college, 47. 

Government, abolition of, 141. 

Grandmother's Review, 30. 

Gray, Thomas, Elegy often quoted, 
316, 317, 416. 

Greece : poetic teaching, 121 ; allu- 
sion, 168. 

Greek : Emerson's love for, 43, 44 ; 
in Harvard, 49 ; poets, 253 ; moral- 
ist, 299; Bryant's translation, 
378 ; philosophers, 391. (See Ho- 
mer, etc. ) 

Greenough, Horatio, meeting Emer- 
son, 63. 

Grimm, Hermann, 226. 

Guelfs and Ghibellines, illustration, 
47. 

Hafiz, times mentioned, 382. (See 
Persia.) 

Hague, William, essay, 413. 

Haller, Albert von, rare union, 324. 

Harvard, Mass., William Emerson's 
settlement, 10, 11. 

Harvard University : the Bulkeley 
gift, 6 ; William Emerson's gradu- 
ation, 10 ; list of graduates, 12 ; 
Emerson's brothers, 19, 21 ; Reg- 
ister, 21, 24, 385, 401 ; Hillard, 24, 
25 ; Kirkland's presidency, 26, 
27; Gardner, 39-41; Emerson's 
connection, 44-49 ; the Boylston 
prizes, 46 ; Southern students, 
47 ; graduates at Andover, 48 ; 
Divinity School, 51, 53 ; a New 
England centre, 52 ; Bowen's pro- 
fessorship, 103 ; Phi Beta Kappa 
oration, 107, 115, 133, 188, 244: 
Divinity School address, 116-132 ; 
degree conferred, 246 ; lectures, 
249 ; library, 257 ; last Divinity 
address, 294 ; Commemoration, 
307 ; singing class, 361 ; graduates, 
411. (See Cambridge.) 

Haskins, David Green, at Emerson's 
funeral, 356. 

Haskins, Ruth (Emerson's mother), 
10, 13, 14. 



434 



INDEX. 



Haughty, a characteristic expres- 
sion, 405. 

Hawthorne, Nathaniel : his Mosses, 
70; " dream - peopled solitude," 
8G ; at the club, 223 ; view of Eng- 
lish life, 335 ; grave, 356 ; biogra- 
phy, 368. 

Hazlitt, William : British Poets, 21. 

Health, inspiration, 289. 

Hebrew Language, study, 48. (See 
Bible.) 

Hedge, Frederic Henry : at a party, 
149 ; quoted, 383. 

Henry VII., tombs, 415. 

Herbert, George : Poem on Man, 
102 ; parallel, 170 ; poetry, 281 ; a 
line quoted, 345. 

Herder, Johann Gottfried, allusion, 
16. 

Heredity : Emerson's belief, 1, 2 ; 
in Emerson family, 4, 19 ; Whip- 
ple on, 389 ; Jonson, 393. 

Herrick, Robert, poetry, 281. 

Higginson, Thomas Wentworth. 
(See Emerson's Books, — Nature.) 

Hilali, The Flute, 399. 

Hillard, George Stillman : in college, 
24, 25 ; his literary place, 33 ; aid, 
276. 

Hindoo Scriptures, 199, 200. (See 
Bible, India, etc.) 

History, how it should be written, 
168. 

Hoar, Ebenezer Rockwood : refer- 
ence to, 223 ; on the Burns speech, 
225 ; kindness, 273, 274, 276-279 ; 
at Emerson's death-bed, 349 ; fu- 
neral address, 351-353. 

Hoar, Samuel : statesman, 72 ; trib- 
ute, 213, 214. 

Holland, description of the Dutch, 
217. 

Holley, Horace, prayer, 267. 

Holmes, John, a pupil of Emerson, 
50. 

Holmes, Oliver Wendell : memories 
of Dr. Ripley, 15 ; of C. C. Emer- 
son, 20, 21 ; familiarity with Cam- 
bridge and its college, 45 ; errone- 
ous quotation from, 251, 252 ; jest 
erroneously attributed to, 400, 401. 

Holy Ghost, ' ' a new born bard of 
the," 123. (See Christ, God, Re- 
ligion, etc.) 

Homer : poetic rank, 202, 320 ; pla- 
giarism, 205 ; Iliad, 253 ; allusion, 
315 ; tin pans, 325 ; times quoted, 
3S2. (See Greek, etc.) 

Homer, Jonathan, minister of New- 
ton, 15. 



Hooper, Mrs. Ellen, The Dial, 159, 
160. 

Hope : lacking in America, 143 ; in 
every essay, 284. 

Horace : allusion, 22 ; Ars Poetica, 
316. 

Horses, Flora Temple's time, 3S8. 

Howard University, speech, 263. 

Howe, Samuel Gridley, the philan- 
thropist, 223. 

Hunt, Leigh, meeting Emerson, 195. 

Hunt, William, the painter, 223. 

Idealism, 98-100, 146, 150. 

Idealists : Ark full, 191 ; Platonic 
sense, 391. 

Imagination : the faculty, 141 ; de- 
fined, 237, 238 ; essay, 283 ; color- 
ing life, 324. 

Imbecility, 231. 

Immortality, 262. (See God, Re- 
ligion, etc.) 

Incompleteness, in poetry, 339. 

India : poetic models, 338 ; idea of 
preexistence, 391 ; Brahmanism, 
397. (See Emerson's Poems, 
— Brahma.) 

Indians : in history of Concord, 71 ; 
Algonquins, 72. 

Inebriation, subject in Monthly An- 
thology, 30. 

Insects, defended, 190. 

Inspiration: of Nature, 22, 96, 141 ; 
urged, 146. 

Instinct, from God or Devil, 393. 

Intellect, confidence in, 134. 

Intuition, 394. 

Ipswich, Mass., 3, 4, 8. 

Ireland, Alexander : glimpses of 
Emerson, 44, 64, 65 ; reception, 
193, 194 ; on Carlyle, 196 ; letter 
from Miss Peabody, 317 ; quoting 
Whitman, 344 ; quoted, 350. 

Irving, Washington, 33. 

Italy : Emerson's first visit, 62, 63 ; 
Naples, 113. 

Jackson, Charles, garden, 38. 

Jackson, Dr. Charles Thomas, anaes- 
thesia, 403. 

Jackson, Miss Lydia, reading Car- 
lyle, 81. (See Mrs. Emerson.) 

Jahn, Johann, studied at Andover, 
48. 

Jameson, Anna, new book, 131. 

Jesus : times mentioned, 382 ; a 
divine manifestation, 411 ; fol- 
lowers, 417 ; and Emerson, 419. 
(See Bible, Christ, Church, Re- 
ligion, etc. ) 



INDEX. 



435 



Joachim, the violinist, 225, 22G. 
Johnson, Samuel, literary style, 29. 
Jonson, Ben : poetic rank, 281 ; a 

phrase, 300 ; traduction, 393. 

(See Heredity, etc.) 
Journals, as a method of work, 384. 
Jupiter Scapin, 207. 
Jury Trial, and dinners, 216. 
Justice, the Arch Abolitionist, 306. 
Juvenal : allusion, 22 ; precept from 

heaven, 252. 

Kalamazoo, Mich., allusion, 388. 

Kamschatka, allusion, 167. 

Keats, John : quoted, 92 ; Ode to a 

Nightingale, 316 ; faint, swoon, 

405. 
King, the, illustration, 74. 
Kirkland, John Thornton : Harvard 

presidency, 26, 52 ; memories, 27. 
Koran, allusion, 198. (See Bible, 

God, Religion, etc.) 

Labor : reform, 141 ; dignity, 142. 

Laceuaire, evil instinct, 392. 

Laertius, Diogenes, 390, 391. 

La Harpe, Jean Francois, on Plu- 
tarch, 301. 

Lamarck, theories, 166. 

Lamb, Charles, Carlyle's criticism, 
196. 

Landor, Walter Savage, meeting 
Emerson, 63. 

Landscape, never painted, 339, 240. 
(See Pictures, etc.) 

Language : its symbolism, 95-97 ; an 
original, 394. 

Latin : Peter Bulkeley's scholarship, 
7 ; translation, 24, 25 ; Emerson's 
Translations, 43, 44. 

Laud, Archbishop, 6. 

Law, "Williain, mysticism, 396. 

Lawrence, Mass., allusion, 44. 

Lecturing, given up, 295. (See Em- 
erson's Essays, Lectures, etc. ) 

Leibnitz, 386. 

Leroux, Pierre, preexistence, 391. 

Letters, inspiration, 289. 

Lincoln, Abraham, character, 307. 
(See Emerson's Essays.) 

Linnceus, illustration, 323, 324. 

Litanies, in Emerson, 314. (See 
Episcopacy.) 

Literature : aptitude for, 2, 3 ; ac- 
tivity in 1S20, 147. 

Little Classics, edition, 347. 

Liverpool, Eng., a visit, 193, 194. 
(See England, Europe, Scotland, 
etc.) 

Locke, John, allusion, 16, 111. 



London, England. : Tower Stairs; 
63 ; readers, 194 ; sights, 221 ; 
travellers, 308 ; wrath, 385. (See 
England, etc.) 

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth : 
allusions, 31, 33 ; Saturday Club, 
222, 223 ; burial, 346. 

Lord, Nathan, President of Dart- 
mouth College, 132. 

Lord's Supper, Emerson's doubts, 
57-61. 

Lothrop & Co., publishers, 83. 

Louisville, Ky., Dr. Clarke's resi- 
dence, 78-80. 

Lounsbury, Professor, Chaucer let- 
ter, 205. 

Love : in America, 143 ) the Arch 
Abolitionist, 306. (See Emerson's 
Poems. ) 

Lowell, Charles : minister of the 
"West Church, 11, 12, 52 ; on Kirk- 
land, 27. 

Lowell, F. C, generosity, 276. 

Lowell, James Russell : an allusion, 
33 ; on The American Scholar, 107 ; 
editorship, 221 ; club, 223 ; on the 
Burns speech, 225 ; on Emerson's 
bearing, 360, 361 ; Hawthorne 
biography, 368 ; on lectures, 379. 

Lowell, Mass. , factories, 44. 

Luther, Martin : lecture, 73 ; his con- 
servatism, 298 ; times mentioned, 
382. 

Lyceum, the : a pulpit, 88 ; New 
England, 192 ; a sacrifice, 378. 
(See Lecturing, Emerson's Lec- 
tures, etc. 

Lycurgus, 306. (See Gh'eece.) 

Mackintosh, Sir James, an allusion, 

16. 
Macmillan's Magazine, 414. 
Maiden, Mass. : Joseph Emerson's 

ministry, 8 ; diary, 17. 
Man : a fable about, 109, 110 ; faith 

in, 122 ; apostrophe, 140. 
Manchester, Eng. : visit, 194, 195 ; 

banquet, 220. (See England, etc. ) 
Marlowe, Christopher, expressions, 

404. 
Marvell, Andrew : reading by C. C. 

Emerson, 21 ; on the Dutch, 217 ; 

verse, 338. 
Mary, Queen, her martyrs, 418. 
Massachusetts Historical Society : 

tribute to C. C. Emerson, 21 ; qual- 
ity of its literature, 84 ; on Car- 

lyle, 294. 
Massachusetts Quarterly Review, 

193, 302, 307, 411. 



436 



INDEX. 



•Materialism, 146, 391. (See Reli- 
gion. ) 

Mather, Cotton : his Magnalia, 5-7 ; 
on Concord discord, 57 ; on New 
England Melancholy, 216 ; a bor- 
rower, 381. 

Mathew, Father, disciples, 368. 

Mayhew, Jonathan, Boston minister, 
51. 

Melioration, a characteristic expres- 
sion, 405. 

Mendon, Mass., Joseph Emerson's 
* ministry, 4. 

Mephistopheles, Goethe's creation, 
208. 

Merrimac River, 71. 

Metaphysics, indifference to, 249. 

Methodism, in Boston, 56. (See 
Father Taylor.) 

Michael Angelo : allusions, 73, 75 ; 
on external beauty, 99 ; course, 
260 ; filled with God, 284 ; on im- 
mortality, 290 ; times mentioned, 
382. 

Middlesex Agricultural Association, 
235. (See Agriculture, Emerson's 
Essays. ) 

Middlesex Association, Emerson ad- 
mitted, 53. 

Miller's Retrospect, 34. 

Milton, John : influence in New Eng- 
land, 16 ; quotation, 24 ; essay, 73, 
75 ; compared with Emerson, 76, 
77 ; Lycidas, 178 ; supposed speech, 
220; diet, 270, 271; poetic rank, 
281; Arnold's citation, Logic, Rhet- 
oric, 315; popularity, 316; quoted, 
324; tin pans, 325 ; inventor of har- 
monies, 328; Lycidas, 333; Comus, 
33S ; times mentioned, 382 ; pre- 
cursor, quotation, 415 

Miracles : false impression, 121, 122 ; 
and idealism, 146 ; theories, 191 ; 
St. Januarius, 217; objections, 
244. (See Bible, Christ, Religion, 
etc.) 

Modena, Italy, Emerson's visit, 63. 

Monadnoc, Mount, 70. 

Montaigne : want of religion, 300 ; 
great authority, 380 ; times quoted, 
382. 

Montesquieu, on immortality, 291. 

Monthly Anthology : Wm. Emerson's 
connection, 13, 26 ; precursor of 
North American Review, 28, 29 ; 
character, 30, 31 ; Quincy's trib- 
ute, 31 ; Society formed, 32 ; 
career, 33 ; compared with The 
Dial, 160. 

Moody Family, of York, Me., 8, 10. 



Morals, in Plutarch, 301. 

Morison, John Hopkins, on Emer- 
son's preaching, 67. 

Mormons, 264, 268. 

Mother-wit, a favorite expression, 
404, 405. 

Motley, John Lothrop, 33, 223. 

Mount Auburn, strolls, 40. 

Movement, party of the, 147. 

Munroe & Co., publishers, 81. 

Music : church, 306 ; inaptitude for, 
361 ; great composers, 401. 

Musketaquid River, 22, 70, 71. 

Mysticism : unintelligible, 390 ; Em- 
erson's, 396. 

Napoleon : allusion, 197 ; times 
mentioned, 382. 

Napoleon III., 225. 

Nation, The, Emerson's interest in, 
348. 

Native Bias, 288. 

Nature : in undress, 72 ; solicita- 
tions, 110 ; not truly studied, 135 ; 
great men, 199 ; tortured, 402. 
(See Emerson's Books, Emerson's 
Essays, etc.) 

Negations, to be shunned, 285. 

New Bedford, Mass., Emerson's 
preaching, 52, 67. 

Newbury, Mass. , Edward Emerson's 
deaconship, S. 

New England : families, 2, 3, 5 ; Pe- 
ter Bulkeley's coming, 6 ; clerical 
virtues, 9 ; Church, 14 ; literary 
sky, 33 ; domestic service, 34, 35 ; 
two centres, 52 ; an ideal town, 
70, 71 ; the Delphi, 72 ; Carlyle 
invited, 83 ; anniversaries, 84 ; 
town records, 85 ; Genesis, 102 ; 
effect of Nature, 106 ; boys and 
girls, 163 ; Massachusetts, Con- 
necticut River, 172 ; lyceums, 
192 ; melancholy, 216 ; New Eng- 
landers and Old, 220 ; meaning 
of a word, 296, 297 ; eyes, 325 ; 
life, 325, 335 ; birthright, 364 ; a 
thorough New Englander, 406 ; 
Puritan, 409 ; theologians, 410 ; 
Jesus wandering in, 419. (See 
America, England, etc.) 

Newspapers : defaming the noble, 
145 ; in Shakespeare's day, 204. 

Newton, Mass. : its minister, 15 ; 
Episcopal Church, 68. (See Rice.) 

Newton, Sir Isaac, times quoted, 
382. 

Newton, Stuart, sketches, 130. 

New World, gospel, 371 . ( See Amer- 
ica.) 



INDEX. 



437 



New York: Brevoort House, 246; 
Genealogical Society, 413. 

Niagara, visit, 263. 

Nidiver, George, ballad, 259. 

Nightingale, Florence, 220. 

Nithsdale, Eng., mountains, 78. 

Non-Resistance, 141. 

North American Review : its prede- 
cessor, 28, 29, 33 ; the writers, 
34 ; Emerson's contributions, 73 ; 
Ethics, 294, 295 ; Bryant's article, 
328. 

Northampton, Mass., Emerson's 
preaching, 53. 

Norton, Andrews: literary rank, 
34 ; professorship, 52. 

Norton, Charles Eliot : editor of 
Correspondence, 82 ; on Emer- 
son's genius, 373. 

Old Manse, The : allusion, 70 ; fire, 
271-279. (See Concord.) 

Oliver, Daniel, in Dartmouth Col- 
lege, 132. 

Optimism : in philosophy, 136 ; " in- 
nocent luxuriance," 211 ; wanted 
by the young, 373. 

Oriental : genius, 120 ; spirit in Em- 
erson, 179. 

Orpheus, allusion, 319. 

Paine, R. T., Jr., quoted, 31. 

Palfrey, John Gorham : literary 
rank, 34 ; professorship, 52. 

Pan, the deity, 140. 

Pantheism : in Wordsworth and Na- 
ture, 103 ; dreaded, 141 ; Emer- 
son's, 410, 411. 

Paris, France : as a residence, 78 ; 
allusion, 167 ; salons, 184 ; visit, 
196, 308. 

Parker, Theodore : a right arm of 
freedom, 127 ; at a party, 149 ; 
The Dial, 159, 160; editorship, 
193 ; death, 228 ; essence of Chris- 
tianity, 306 ; biography, 368 ; on 
Emerson's position, 411. 

Parkhurst, John, studied at Ando- 
ver, 48. 

Parr, Samuel, allusion, 28. 

Past, party of the, 147. 

Peabody, Andrew Preston, literary 
rank, 34. 

Peabody, Elizabeth Palmer : her Es- 
thetic Papers, 88 ; letter to Mr. 
Ireland, 317. 

Peirce, Benjamin,, mathematician, 
223. 

Pelagianism, 51. (See Religion.) 

Pepys, Samuel, allusion, 12. 



Pericles, 184, 253. 

Persia, poetic models, 338. (See 

Emerson's Poems, Saadi.) 
Pessimism, 286. (See Optimism.) 
Philadelphia, Pa., society, 184. 
Philanthropy, activity in 1820, 147. 
Philolaus, 199. 
Pie, fondness for, 269. 
Pierce, John : the minister of Brook- 
line, 11 ; " our clerical Pepys," 12. 
Pindar, odes, 253. (See Greek, Ho- 
mer, etc.) 
Plagiarism, 205, 206, 287, 288, 384. 

(See Quotations, Mather, etc.) 
Plato : influence on Mary Emerson, 
16, 17 ; over Emerson, 22, 52, 173, 
188, 299, 301 ; youthful essay, 74 ; 
Alcott's study, 150 ; reading, 197 ; 
borrowed thought, 205, 206 ; Pla- 
tonic idea, 222 ; a Platonist, 267 ; 
saints of Platonism, 298 ; acad- 
emy inscription, 365 ; great au- 
thority, 380 ; times quoted, 382 ; 
Symposium and Phaedrus quoted, 
387 ; tableity, preexistence, 391 ; 
Diogenes dialogue, 401 ; a Plato- 
nist, 411. (See Emerson's Books, 
and Essays, Greek, etc.) 
Plotinus : influence over Mary Em- 
erson, 16, 17 ; ashamed of his 
body, 99; motto, 105; opinions, 
173, 174 ; studied, 380. 
Plutarch : allusion, 22 ; his Lives, 
50 ; study, 197 ; on immortality, 
291 ; influence over Emerson, 299 
et seg. ; his great authority, 380 ; 
times mentioned, 382 ; Emerson 
on, 383 ; imagery quoted, 385 ; 
style, 405. 
Plymouth, Mass. : letters written, 

78, 79 ; marriage, 83. 
Poetry : as an inspirer, 290 ; Milton 

on, 315. (See Shakespeare, etc.) 
Poets : list in Parnassus, 281 ; com- 
parative popularity, 316, 317 ; con- 
sulting Emerson, 408. (See Ein- 
erso?i's Poems.) 
Politics: activity in 1820, 147; in 

Saturday Club, 259. 
Pomeroy, Jesse, allusion, 393. 
Pope, Alexander, familiar lines, 316 
Porphyry : opinions, 173, 174 ; stud- 
ied, 380. 
Porto Rico, E. B. Emerson's death, 

19. 
Power, practical, 259. 
Prayer : not enough, 138, 139 ; an- 
ecdotes, 267. (See God, Religion, 
etc.) 
Preaching, a Christian blessing, 123. 



438 



INDEX. 



Preexistence, 391. 

Presbyterianism, in Scotland, 409. 

Prescott, William, the Judge's man- 
sion, 38. 

Prescott, William Hickling: rank, 
33 ; Conquest of Mexico, 38. 

Prior, Matthew, 30. 

Proclus, influence, 173, 380. 

Prometheus, 209. 

Prospects, for man, 101-103. (See 
Emerson's Essays.) 

Protestantism, its idols, 28. (See 
Channing, Religion, Unitarian- 
ism, etc.) 

Psammeticus, an original language, 
394. (See Heredity, Language, 
etc.) 

Punch, London, 204. 

Puritans, rear guard, 15. (See Cal- 
vinism, etc.) 

Puritanism : relaxation from, 30 ; 
after-clap, 268 ; in New England, 
409. (See Unitarianism.) 

Putnam's Magazine, on Samuel 
Hoar, 213, 214. 

Pythagoras : imagery quoted, 385 ; 
preexistence, 391. 

Quakers, seeing only broad-brims, 
218. 

Quiney, Josiah : History of Boston 
Athenseum, 31 ; tribute to the An- 
thology, 32, 33 ; memories of Em- 
erson, 45-47 ; old age, 261. 

Quotations, 381-383. (See Plagia- 
rism, etc.) 

Raleigh, Sir Walter, verse, 338. 

Raphael, his Transfiguration, 134. 
(See Allston, Painters, etc.) 

Rats, illustration, 167, 168. 

Reed, Sampson, his Growth of the 
Mind, 80. 

Reforms, in America, 141-145. 

Reformers, fairness towards, 156, 
157, 188-192. (See Anti-Slavery, 
John Brown. ) 

Religion : opinions of Wm. Emerson 
and others, 11-13 ; nature the 
symbol of spirit, 95 ; pleas for in- 
dependence, 117 ; universal senti- 
ment, 11S-120 ; public rites, 152 ; 
Church of England, 219 ; of the 
future, 235 ; relative positions to- 
wards, 409, 410 ; Trinity, 411 ; 
Emerson's belief, 412-415 ; bigotry 
modified, 414. (See Calvinism, 
Channing, Christ, Emerson's Life, 
Essays, and Poems, Episcopacy, 
God, Unitarianism, etc.) 



Republicanism, spiritual, 36. 

Revolutionary War : Wm. Emerson's 
service, 8, 9 ; subsequent confu- 
sion, 25, 32 ; Concord's part, 71, 
72, 292, 293. (See America, New 
England, etc.) 

Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 228. 

Rhythm, 328, 329, 340. (See Emer- 
son's Poems, etc.) 

Rice, Alexander H., anecdote, 68, 
69,346. (See Newton.) 

Richard Plantagenet, 197. 

Ripley, Ezra : minister of Concord, 
10 ; Emerson's sketch, 14-16 ; 
garden, 42 ; colleague, 56 ; resi- 
dence, 70. 

Ripley, George : a party, 149 ; The 
Dial, 159 ; Brook Farm, 164-166 ; 
on Emerson's limitations, 380. 

Robinson, Edward, literary rank, 
34. 

Rochester, N. Y., speech, 168. 

Rome : allusions, 167, 168 ; growth, 
222; amphora, 321. (See Latin.) 

Romilly, Samuel, allusion, 220. 

Rose, anecdote, 345. (See Flowers.) 

Rousseau, Jean Jacques, his Savoy- 
ard Vicar, 51, 52. 

Ruskin, John : on metaphysics, 250 ; 
certain chapters, 336 ; pathetic 
fallacy, 337 ; plagiarism, 384. 

Russell, Ben. , quoted, 267. 

Russell, Le Baron : on Sartor Resar- 
tus, 81, 82 ; groomsman, 83 ; aid 
in rebuilding the Old Manse, 272- 
279 ; Concord visit, 345. 

Saadi : a borrower, 205 ; times men- 
tioned, 382. (See Persia.) 

Sabbath : a blessing of Christianity, 
123, 298. 

Sainte-Beuve, Charles Augustin, on 
poetry, 339. 

Saint Paul, times mentioned, 382. 
(See Bible.) 

Saladin, 184. 

Sallust, on Catiline, 207. 

Sanborn, Frank B. : facts about Em- 
erson, 42, 43, 66 ; Thoreau memoir, 
363 ; old neighbor, 373. 

Sapor, 184. 

Satan, safety from, 306. (See Meph- 
istopheles, Religion, etc. ) 

Saturday Club : establishment, 221- 
223, 258 ; last visits, 346, 347 ; 
familiarity at, 368. 

Scaliger, quotation, 109, 110. 

Schelling, idealism, 148 ; influence, 
173. 

Schiller, on immortality, 290. 



INDEX. 



439 



Scholarship : a priesthood, 137 ; do- 
cility of, 289. 

School-teaching, 297. (See Chelms- 
ford.) 

Schopenhauer, Arthur : his pessi- 
mism, 2S6; idea of a philosopher, 
359. 

Science : growth of, 148 ; Emerson 
inaccurate in, 256; attitude to- 
ward, 401, 402. (See C. C. Emer- 
son.) 

Scipio, 184. 

Scotland : Carlyle's haunts, 79 ; no- 
tabilities, 195, 196 ; Presbyterian, 
409. 

Scott, Sir Walter : allusion, 22 ; quo- 
tations, 23, 77; dead, 03; "the 
hand of Douglas," 234 ; as a poet, 
281 ; popularity, 316 ; poetic rank, 
321. 

Self : the highest, 113 ; respect for, 
283, 239. 

Seneca, Montaigne's study, 332. 

Shakespeare : allusion, 22 ; Hamlet, 
90, 94; Benedick and love, 106; 
disputed line, 123, 129; an idol, 
197; poetic rank, 202, 231, 320, 
321 ; plagiarism, 204-206 ; on 
studies, 257, 258 ; supremacy, 32S ; 
a comparison, 374 ; a playwright, 
375, 376 ; punctiliousness of Por- 
tia, 378 ; times mentioned, 332 ; 
lunatic, lover, poet, 387 ; Polo- 
nius, 389 ; mother-wit, 404 ; fine 
Ariel, 405 ; adamant, 416. 

Shattuck, Lemuel, History of Con- 
cord, 382. 

Shaw, Lemuel, boarding-place, 43. 

Shelley, Percy Bysshe : Ode to the 
West Wind, 316, 399 ; redundant 
syllable, 328 ; Adonais, 333. 

Shenandoah Mountain, 306. 

Shingle, Emerson's jest, 364. 

Ships : illustration of longitude, 154 ; 
erroneous quotation, 251, 252 ; 
building illustration, 376, 377. 

Sicily : Emerson's visit, 62 ; Etna, 
113. 

Sidney, Sir Philip, Chevy Chace, 379. 

Silsbee, William, aid in publishing 
Carlyle, 81. 

Simonides, prudence, 410. 

Sisyphus, illustration, 334. 

Sleight-of-hand, illustration, 332. 

Smith, James and Horace, Rejected 
Addresses, 387, 397. 

Smith, Sydney, on bishops, 219. 

Socrates : allusion, 203 ; times men- 
tioned, 382. 

Solitude, sought, 135. 



Solomon, epigrammatic, 405. (See 
Bible.) 

Solon, 199. 

Sophron, 199. 

South, the : Emerson's preaching 
tour, 53 ; Rebellion, 305, 407. (See 
America, Anti-Slavery, etc.) 

Southerners, in college, 47. 

Sparks, Jared, literary rank, 33. 

Spenser, Edmund : stanza, 335, 338 ; 
soul making body, 391 ; mother- 
wit, 404. 

Spinoza, influence, 173, 3S0. 

Spirit and matter, 100, 101. (See 
God, Religion, Spenser, etc. ) 

Spiritualism, 296. 

Sprague, William Buel, Annals of 
the American Pulpit, 10-12. 

Stanley, Arthur Penrhyn, on Amer- 
ican religion, 414. 

Star : ' ' hitch your wagon to a 
star," 252, 253; stars in poetry, 
324. 

Sterling, J. Hutchinson, letter to, 
282, 283. 

Stewart, Dugald, allusion, 16. 

Story, Joseph, literary rank, 33. 

Stuart, Moses, literary rank, 33. 

Studio, illustration, 20. 

Summer, description, 117. 

Sumner, Charles : literary rank, 33 ; 
the outrage on, 211 ; Saturday 
Club, 223. 

Swedenborg, Emanuel : poetic rank, 
202, 320 ; dreams, 306 ; Rosetta- 
Stone, 322 ; times mentioned, 
382. 

Swedenborgians : liking for a paper 
of Carlyle's, 78 ; Reed's essay, 80 ; 
spiritual influx, 412. 

Swift, Jonathan : allusion, 30 ; the 
Houyhnhnms, 163; times men- 
tioned, 382. 

Synagogue, illustration, 169. 

Tappan, Mrs. Caroline, The Dial, 
159. 

Tartuffe, allusion, 312. 

Taylor, Father, relation to Emer- 
son, 55, 56, 413. 

Taylor, Jeremy : allusion, 22 ; Emer- 
son's study, 52 ; " the Shakespeare 
of divines," 94; praise for, 306. 

Teague, Irish name, 143. 

Te Deum : the hymn, 68 ; illustra- 
tion, 82. 

Temperance, the reform, 141, 152. 
( See Reforms. ) 

Tennyson, Alfred : readers, 256 ; to- 
bacco, 270 ; poetic rank, 281 ; In 



440 



INDEX. 



Memoriam, 333; on plagiarism, 
384. 

Thacher, Samuel Cooper : allusion, 
26 ; death, 29. 

Thayer, James B. : "Western Journey 
with Emerson, 249, 263, 265-271, 
359 ; ground swell, 364. (See Cal- 
ifornia. ) 

Thinkers, let loose, 175. 

Thomson, James, descriptions, 338. 

Thoreau, Henry D. : allusion, 22 ; a 
Crusoe, 72; "nullifier of civiliza- 
tion," 86; one-apartment house, 
142, 143; The Dial, 159, 160; 
death, 228 ; Emerson's burial- 
place, 356 ; biography, 368 ; person- 
ality traceable, 389 ; woodcraft, 
403. 

Ticknor, George : on William Emer- 
son, 12 ; on Kirkland, 27 ; literary 
rank, 33. 

Traduction, 393. (See Heredity, 
Jonson, etc.) 

Transcendentalism : Bowen's paper, 
103, 104 ; idealism, 146 ; adher- 
ents, 150-152 ; dilettanteism, 152- 
155 ; a terror, 161. 

Transcendentalist, The, 157-159. 

Truth : as an end, 99 ; sought, 135. 

Tudor, William : allusion, 26 ; con- 
necting literary link, 28, 29. 

Turgot, quoted, 98, 99. 

Tyburn, allusion, 183. 

Unitaeianism : Dr. Freeman's, 11, 
12 ; nature of Jesus, 13 ; its sun- 
shine, 28 ; white-handed, 34 ; head- 
quarters, 35 ; lingual studies, 48, 
49 ; transition, 51 ; domination, 
52 ; pulpits, 53, 54 ; chapel in Ed- 
inburgh, 65 ; file-leaders, 118 ; its 
organ, 124 ; "pale negations," 298. 
(See Religion, Trinity, etc.) 

United States, intellectual history, 
32. (See America, New England, 
etc.) 

Unity, in diversity, 73, 106, 284. 

Upham, Charles W., his History, 45. 

Verne, Jules, onditologie, 186. 
Verplanck, Gulian Crommelin, lit- 
erary rank, 33. 
Virginia, University of. 299. 
Volcano, illustration, 113. 
Voltaire, 409 
Voting, done reluctantly, 152, 153. 

Wachusett, Mount, 70. 
Walden Pond : allusion, 22, 70, 72 ; 
cabin, 142, 143. (See Concord.) 



War : outgrown, 88, 89 ; ennobling, 
298. 

Ware, Henry, professorship, 52. (See 
Harvard University.) 

Ware, Henry, Jr. : Boston ministry, 
55; correspondence, 124-127. (See 
Unitarianism, etc. ) 

Warren, John Collins, Transcenden- 
talism and Temperance, 149. 

Warren, Judge, of New Bedford, 
67. 

Warwick Castle, fire, 275. 

Washington City, addresses, 307. 
(See Anti-Slavery, etc.) 

Waterville College, Adelphi Society, 
135-142. 

Webster, Daniel : E B. Emerson's 
association with, 19 ; on Tudor, 28, 
29 ; literary rank, 33 ; Seventh-of- 
March Speech, 303 ; times men- 
tioned, 382. 

Weiss, John, Parker biography, 
368. 

Wellington, Lord, seen by Emerson, 
63, 64. 

Wesley, John, praise of, 306. (Seo 
Methodism.) 

Western Messenger, poems in, 128. 

West India Islands, Edward B. Em- 
erson's death, 89. 

Westminster Abbey, Emerson's 
visit, 63, 64. (See Emerson's 
Books, — English Traits, — Eng- 
land, etc.) 

Westminster Catechism, 298. (See 
Calvinism, Religion, etc. ) 

Whipple, Edwin Percy: literary 
rank, 33 ; club, 223 ; on heredity, 
389 

White of Selborne, 228. 

Whitman, Walt : his enumerations, 
325, 326 ; journal, 344, 346. 

Wilberforce, William, funeral, 64. 

Will : inspiration of, 289 ; power of, 
290. 

Windermere, Lake, 70. (See Eng- 
land.) 

Winthrop, Francis William, in col- 
lege, 45. 

Wolfe, Charles, Burial of Moore, 
416. 

Woman : her position, 212, 213, 251 ; 
crossing a street, 364. 

Woman's Club, 16. 

Words, Emerson's favorite, 404, 405. 
( See Emerson's Poems, — Days. ) 
Wordsworth, William : Emerson's 
account, 63 ; early reception, Ex- 
cursion, 92, 95 ; quoted, 96, 97 ; 
Tintern Abbey, 103; influence, 



INDEX. 



441 



148, 150 ; poetic rank, 281, 321 ; 
on Immortality, 293, 392 ; popu- 
larity, 316 ; serenity, 335 ; study 
of nature, 337 ; times mentioned, 
382 ; "We are Seven, 393 ; prejudice 
against science, 401. 
Wotton, Sir Henry, quoted, 259. 

Yankee : a spouting, 136 ; improve, 



176 ; whittling, 364. (See Amer- 
ica, Neiv England, etc. ) 

Yoga, Hindoo idea, 397. 

Young, Brigham: Utah, 264, 268; 
on preexistence, 391. 

Youne;, Edward, influence in New 
England, 16, 17. 

Zola, Emile, offensive realism, 326. 



WORKS OF 

RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 



There is no man living to whom, as a writer, so many of us feel and 
thankfully acknowledge so great an indebtedness for ennobling impulses. 
We look upon him as one of the few men of genius whom our age has 
produced ; and there needs no better proof of it than his masculine fac- 
ulty of fecundating other minds. — James Russell Lowell. 

In doing homage to that sweet nature, we do it to the highest type of 
our common humanity. Emerson was a splendid manifestation of reason 
in its most comprehensive form, and with all its most godlike aspirations. 
— John Tyndall. 



COMPLETE WORKS. 

Riverside Edition. With two Portraits. In 11 volumes, 12mo, gilt top, 
each, $1.75. The set, $19.25 ; half calf, $3S.50; half crushed levant, 
$49.50. 

An entirely new library edition of the works of Mr. Emerson, printed 
from new electrotype plates. It includes the prose and poetical writings 
of Mr. Emerson hitherto published in book form, and, in addition, two 
new volumes of essays, lectures, and speeches. The order of the volumes 
is as follows : — 

I. Nature, Addresses, and Lectures (formerly known as Miscellanies). 
II. Essays. Eirst Series. 

III. Essays. Second Series. 

IV. Representative Men. 
V. English Traits. 

VI. Conduct of Life. 
VII. Society and Solitude. 
VIII. Letters and Social Aims. 
IX. Poems. 
X. Lectures and Biographical Sketches. (A new volume.) 
XI. Miscellanies. (A new volume.) 

The workmanship of this elegantly simple edition is what we expect 
from the taste that presides over the publications of the Riverside Press. 
— New York Evening Post. 

" Little Classic" Edition. In 11 volumes, 18mo, each, $1.50. The set, 
11 volumes, $16.50 ; half calf, or half morocco, $32.00 ; tree calf, $40.00. 



SELECTED VOLUMES. 

Poems. "Little Classic" Edition. Half calf, $3.00. 

Essays. "Little, Classic " Edition. 2 vols. Half calf, §6.00. 

Culture, Behavior, Beauty, Power, Wealth, Illusions, Books, Art, Elo- 
quence. " Modern Classics " No. 2. 32mo, orange edges, 75 cents. 
School Edition. 32mo, 40 cents. 

Nature, Success, Greatness, Immortality, Love, Friendship, Domestic 

Life. "Modern Classics " No. 3. 32mo, orange edges, 75 cents. 
School Edition. 32mo, 40 cents. 

Fortune of the Republic. 16mo, 50 cents ; paper covers, 25 cents. 



COMPILATIONS. 



Parnassus. A choice collection of Poetry. Edited, and with an Intro- 
ductory Essay by It. W. Emerson. Household Edition. 12mo, $2.00; 
half calf, $4.00 ; morocco, or tree calf, $5.00. 

Library Edition. 8vo, $4.00 ; half calf, $7.00 ; morocco, or tree calf, $9.00. 

Emerson Birthday Book. With Portrait and 12 Illustrations. 18mo, 
$1.00 ; full calf, seal, or morocco, limp, $3.50. 

^ Emerson Calendar. Containing selections from Mr. Emerson's writings 
for every Day in the Year. Mounted on decorated card. $1.00. 



To no English writer since Milton can we assign so high a place ; even 
Milton himself, great genius though he was, and great architect of beauty, 
has not added so many thoughts to the treasury of the race. Such is the 
beauty of his speech, such the majesty of his ideas, such the power of the 
moral sentiment in men, and such the impression which his whole char- 
acter makes on them that they lend him everywhere their ears ; and 
thousands bless his manly thoughts. — Massachusetts Quarterly Review. 

In' no equal body of writing is there a more uniform value. It is all 
golden, and it is unquestionably the richest contribution of American 
genius to universal literature. — George William Curtis. 

*** For sale by all Booksellers. Sent, post-paid, on receipt of price by 
tiie Publishers, 

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY, 

' Publishers, Boston, Mass. 



WORKS OF 

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 

As he is everybody r s favorite, there is no occasion for critics to meddle 
with him, either to censure or to praise. He can afford to laugh at the 
whole reviewing fraternity. His wit is all his own, so sly and tingling, 
but without a drop of ill-nature in it, and never leaving a sting behind. 
His humor is so grotesque and queer that it reminds one of the frolics of 
Puck ; and deep pathos mingles with it so naturally that when the read- 
er's eyes are brimming with tears he knows not whether they have their 
source in sorrow or in laughter. — North, American Review. 

PROSE WORKS. 

The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table. New Edition, revised, and con- 
taining a new Preface and Bibliographical Notes. Crown 8vo, gilt top, 
$2.00. 

Handy Volume Edition. 32mo, $1.25 ; half calf, $2.50 ; morocco, tree 
calf, or seal, $4.00. 

The Professor at the Breakfast-Table. New Edition, revised, and 
with a new Preface. Crown 8vo, gilt top. $2.00. 

The Poet at the Breakfast-Table. New Edition, revised, and with a 
new Preface. Crown 8vo, gilt top, $2.00. 

The Breakfast-Table Series, containing "The Autocrat,'' 1 "The Pro- 
fessor," and " The Poet. " 3 vols, crown 8vo, $6.00 ; half calf, $12.00 ; 
morocco, $15.00. 

Elsie Venner. A Romance of Destiny. New Edition. Crown 8vo, gilt 
top, $2.00. 

The Guardian Angel. New Edition. Crown 8vo, gilt top, $2.00. 

Pages from an Old Volume of Life, including " Soundings from the 
Atlantic '•" and " Mechanism in Thought and Morals," etc. Crown 8vo, 
gilt top, $2.00. 

The Breakfast-Table Series, Elsie Venner, The Guardian Angel, Pages 
from an Old Volume of Life, and Poems (Household Edition). The set, 
7 vols., gilt top, uniform in box, $12.00 ; half calf, $24.00. 

Medical Essays (including the volumes published under the titles, "Cur- 
rents and Counter-Currents in Medical Science," and " Border Lines," 
etc.) Crown 8vo, gilt top, $2.00. 

Currents and Counter-Currents in Medical Science, with other Essays. 
New Edition. Uniform with New Edition of Dr. Holmes's Works, 
Crown Svo, gilt top, $2.00. 

Border Lines in some Provinces of Medical Science. 16mo, $1.00. 

Soundings from the Atlantic. 16mo, $1.75. 



Mechanism in Thought and Morals. 16mo, $1.00. 

John Lothrop Motley. A Memoir. Fopular Edition. 16mo, gilt top, 

$1.50. 
Memorial Edition. t With Portrait. 4to, $3.00. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson. In " American Men of Letters " Series. With 
Portrait. 16mo, gilt top, $1.25. 

The Story of Iris (together with Favorite Poems). " Modern Classics " 
No. 30. Illustrated. 32mo, orange edges, 75 cents. 

Selections from "Breakfast-Table Series," and " Pages from an Old 
Volume of Life." "Modern Classics" No. 33. Illustrated. 32mo, 
orange edges, 75 cents. 

School Edition, 32mo, 40 cents. 

POETICAL WORKS. 

Poems. Household Edition. With Portrait. 12mo, $2.00 ; half calf, 
$4.00 ; morocco, or tree calf, $5.00. 

Handy Volume Edition. With Portrait. 2 vols. 32mo, gilt top, $2.50 ; 

half calf, $5.00 ; morocco, tree calf, or seal, $8.00. 
The Same. Together with Handy Volume "Autocrat." 3 vols. 32mo, 

$3.75; half calf, $7.50; tree calf, morocco, or seal, $12.00. 

Illustrated Library Edition. With 32 full page Illustrations, and Por- 
trait. 8vo, full gilt, $4.00 ; half calf, $7.00 ; morocco, or tree calf, 
$9.00. 

Songs of Many Seasons. 16mo, $2.00. 

Songs in Many Keys. 16mo, $1.50. 

Astilea. The Balance of Illusions. 16mo, 75 cents. 

The School-Boy. Illustrated. 4to, full gilt, $3.00 ; morocco, or tree 

calf, $7.50. 
Grandmother's Story, and other Poems. " Riverside Literature Series," 

No. 6. 16mo, paper covers, 15 cents. 

The Iron Gate, and other Poems. With Portrait. 12mo, gilt top, $1.25. 

Favorite Poems (together with the Story of Iris). " Modern Classics." 
No. 30. Illustrated. 32mo, orange edges, 75 cents. 

COMPILATIONS. 

Holmes Leaflets. Selections from the Writings of Holmes, for Home 
and School Use. With Biographical Sketch. Illustrated. 12mo, paper 
covers, 48 cents. Leaflets or pamphlet separately, each 24 cents. 

Holmes Calendar. Selections from tbe Writings of Holmes, for every 
Day in the Year. On decorated card. $1.00. 

*** For sale by all Booksellers. Sent by mail, post-paid, on receipt of 
price by the Publishers, 

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO., Publishers, Boston, Mass. 



American JHen of Letters. 

EDITED BY 

CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER. 



A series of biographies of distinguished American 
authors, having all the special interest of biography, 
and the larger interest and value of illustrating the 
different phases of American literature, the social, 
political, and moral influences which have moulded 
these authors and the generations to which they be- 
longed. 

This series when completed will form an admi- 
rable survey of all that is important and of historical 
influence in American literature, and will itself be a 
creditable representation of the literary and critical 
ability of America to-day. 



Washington Irving. By Charles Dudley Warner. 

Noah Webster. By Horace E. Scudder. 

He?iry D. Thoreau. By Frank B. Sanborn. 

George Ripley. By Octavius Brooks Frothingham. 

J. Fenimore Cooper. By Prof. T. R. Lounsbury. 

Margaret Fuller Ossoli. By T. W. Higginson. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson. By Oliver Wendell Holmes. 

IN PREPARATION 

Edgar Allan Poe. By George E. Woodberry. 
Edmund Quincy. By Sydney Howard Gay. 
Nathaniel Parker Willis. By Henry A. Beers. 
Nathaniel Hawthorne. By James Russell Lowell, 
William Cullen Bryant. By John Bigelow. 
Bayard Taylor. By J. R. G. Hassard. 
Williajn Gilmore Si?nms. By George W. Cable. 
Benjamin Franklin. By John Bach McM aster. 

Others to be announced hereafter. 

Each volume, with Portrait, i6mo, gilt top, $1.25. 



"WASHINGTON IRVING." 

Mr. Warner has not only written with sympathy, minute 
knowledge of his subject, fine literary taste, and that easy, 
fascinating style which always puts him on such good 
terms with his readers, but he has shown a tact, critical 
sagacity, and sense of proportion full of promise for the 
rest of the series which is to pass under his supervision. 

— New York Tribune. 

Mr. Charles Dudley Warner has made an admirable 
biography of Washington Irving, and his critical estimate 
of the man and the writer is unbiased, well weighed, and 
accurate. — Philadelphia Press. 

It is a very charming piece of literary work, and pre- 
sents the reader with an excellent picture of Irving as a 
man and of his methods as an author, together with an 
accurate and discriminating characterization of his works. 

— Boston Joitrnal. 

It would hardly be possible to produce a fairer or more 
candid book of its kind. — Literary World (London). 



"NOAH WEBSTER." 

Mr. Scudder's biography of Webster is alike honorable 
to himself and its subject. Finely discriminating in all 
that relates to personal and intellectual character, schol- 
arly and just in its literary criticisms, analyses, and esti- 
mates, it is besides so kindly and manly in its tone, its 
narrative is so spirited and enthralling, its descriptions 
are so quaintly graphic, so varied and cheerful in their 
coloring, and its pictures so teem with the bustle, the 
movement, and the activities of the real life of a by-gone 
but most interesting age, that the attention of the reader 
is never tempted to wander, and he lays down the book 
with a sigh of regret for its brevity. — Harper's Monthly 
Magazine. 

Mr. Scudder has done his work with characteristic 
thoroughness and fidelity to facts, and has not spared 
those fine, unobtrusive charms of style and humor which 
give him a place among our best writers. — Christian 
Union (New York). 

This little volume is a scholarly, painstaking, and intel- 
ligent account of a singularly unique career. In a purely 
literary point of view it is a surprisingly good piece of 
work. — New York Times. 

It fills completely its place in the purpose of this se- 
ries of volumes — The Critic (New York). 



"HENRY D. THOREAU." 

Mr. Sanborn's book is thoroughly American and truly 
fascinating. Its literary skill is exceptionally good, and 
there is a racy flavor in its pages and an amount of ex- 
act knowledge of interesting people that one seldom meets 
with in current literature. Mr. Sanborn has done Tho- 
reau's genius an imperishable service. — A?nericati Church 
Review (New York). 

Mr. Sanborn has accomplished his difficult task with 
much ability. . . . He has told in an entertaining and 
luminous way the strange story of Thoreau's remarkable 
career, and has expounded with much appreciative sym- 
pathy and analytical power the moral and intellectual 
idiosyncrasies of the most striking and original figure in 
American literature. — Philadelphia North American. 

Mr. Sanborn has written a careful book about a curious 
man, whom he has studied as impartially as possible ; 
whom he admires warmly but with discretion; and the 
story of whose life he has told with commendable frank- 
ness and simplicity. — New York Mail and Express. 

It is undoubtedly the best life of Thoreau extant. — 
ChristiaJi Advocate (New York). 



"GEORGE RIPLEY." 

Mr. Frothingham's memoir is a calm and thoughtful 
and tender tribute. It is marked by rare discrimination, 
and good taste and simplicity. The biographer keeps 
himself in the background, and lets his subject speak. 
And the result is one of the best examples of personal 
portraiture that we have met with in a long time. — The 
Churchman (New York). 

He has fulfilled his responsible task with admirable 
fidelity, frank earnestness, justice, fine feeling, balanced 
moderation, delicate taste, and finished literary skill. It 
is a beautiful tribute to the high-bred scholar and gener- 
ous-hearted man, whose friend he has so worthily por- 
trayed. — Rev. William H. Channing (London). 

Mr. Frothingham has made a very interesting and val- 
uable memoir, and one that can be read with profit by all 
aspirants for recognition in the world of letters. He 
writes affectionately and admiringly, though temperately. 
— Chicago Journal. 

It is a valuable addition to our literature. The work 
was committed to a skilled hand, and it is executed with 
the delicacy of perception and treatment which the sub- 
ject required. — Charleston News and Courier. 



"JAMES FENIMORE COOPER." 

We have here a model biography. We venture to believe 
that the accuracy of its statements will not be challenged, 
its absolute impartiality will not be questioned, the sense 
of literary proportion in the use of material will be ap- 
preciated by all who are capable of judging, the critical 
acumen will be intensely relished, and to the mass of 
readers who care little for facts, or impartiality, or literary 
form, or criticism, the story of the life will have some- 
thing of the fascination of one of the author's own ro- 
mances. For the book is charmingly written, withafelic- 
ity and vigor of diction that are notable, and with a humor 
sparkling, racy, and never obtrusive. — New York Tribtine. 

Prof. Lounsbury's book is an admirable specimen of 
literary biography. . . . We can recall no recent addition to 
American biography in any department which is superior 
to it. It gives the reader not merely a full account of Coo- 
per's literary career, but there is mingled with this a suffi- 
cient account of the man himself apart from his books, and 
of the period in which he lived, to keep alive the interest 
from the first word to the last. — New York Evening Post. 

"MARGARET FULLER OSSOLI." 

Here at last we have a biography of one of the noblest and the 
most intellectual of American women, which does full justice to 
its subject. The author has had ample material for his work, 
— all the material now available perhaps, — and has shown the 
skill of a master in his use of it. . . . It is a fresh view of the 
subject, and adds important information to that already given 
to the public. Mr. Higginson throws new light on the family 
connections and early years of Margaret Fuller, and gives the 
best account we have yet had of what is termed the " Transcen- 
dental " epoch in American literature, and of the origin and his- 
tory of " The Dial," its representative organ. — Rev. Dr. F. H. 
Hedge, in Boston Advertiser. 

Mr. Higginson writes with both enthusiasm and sympathy, 
and makes a volume of surpassing interest. It is at once a 
biography of Margaret Fuller, a sympathetic study of her char- 
acter, her aspirations, and her work, and a specially valuable 
history of the movement which he holds to have emancipated 
American literature from its thraldom to foreign conventions 
and models. — Commercial Advertiser (New York). 

He has filled a gap in our literary history with excellent taste, 
with sound judgment, and with that literary skill which i§ pre- 
eminently his own. — Christian Union (New York). 

*#* For sale by all Booksellers. Sent by mail, post-paid t on 
receipt of price by the Publishers, 

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO., Boston, Mass. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

lllllflllllllllllllllllll 

015 973 261 7 V 



